Tales In The Mist
by Mabel K
Summary: A murder. Two former enemies now a team to clear their names. Who is after them and why ? Past enemies , double meanings , nothing is what used to be for them. Post-Hogwarts Dramione . Rated M for language , violence and sexual scenes.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hello ! This is my first Dramione fanfic, so please forgive any mistakes I make (although I try to not make any ). I will be updating hopefully once or twice a week . I hope you all enjoy it ! I also want to thank olivieblake for checking and helping me edit my first chapter !

 **Disclaimer** : The Harry Potter series and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I make no profit from this story.

Tales In The Mist

Chapter 1

Something wasn't right.

He could feel it. It was the type of feeling you get when your parents catch you in the middle of mischief. The heartbeat before the scolding and the punishment. The room had suddenly gotten too cold for his liking, and it wasn't a matter of heating.

He couldn't concentrate. Grey eyes stared blankly at the piece of parchment with the ingredients he needed for the potion. He didn't know how many times he had tried to count ten drops of Chimaera blood and failed. The mandrake roots were half cut in squares, a vial with salamander's eyes was left in a corner, and the potion was bubbling a vibrant purple when it should have been green by now. Though he didn't care. All in the blond's mind was how he was all right one moment, but then he felt as if he were seventeen again the next. The feeling disappeared as soon as it came but to him it was like an eternity had passed. Drenched in cold sweat he hurriedly closed the open vials and moved the cauldron to another cool surface and extinguished the fire. The only thing in his mind was a little voice he really wanted to never hear again, telling him to get the hell out of there.

Getting out of his potion lab, Draco Malfoy recognised the feeling in the bottom of his stomach. He was afraid. Looking at the moonlit hall of the Manor he was reminded of nightmares he thought that he had forgotten. Every turn he took he made sure to stay away from the shadows. Each long hall he walked through with fast steps. Each turn was a sharp one with his wand ready to attack. He had reached the living area of the house without realising it. When the war had ended and he had paid for what he had done he used his money to change the hell hole that used to be his home. He had brought the best curse breakers to free the house of dark magic and renovated all rooms. Especially the dining hall and the drawing room.

Taking back steps he slided down the wall sitting on the carpeted floor and looking at the shadows. He was alone that night. His mother was off with Andromeda - after a year of owling each other they finally met in face - and Astoria was in France with Daphne, supposedly helping her to prepare the house for the summer. When he had first heard of that he had questioned why Astoria was needed when Theo and Daphne would live there, and she insisted that Daphne wanted her opinion in some things. He didn't really care but he made sure to give her an extra special 'have a nice trip' treatment that almost made her unable to move.

The shadows in the room were dancing, looking, touching him, sucking him in their depths. He let himself relax the best he could. He really had believed that he had gotten rid of the nightmares, but there he was letting the shadows engulf him. He wanted so desperately to let go, to lose himself in the mystery the shadows were offering him, leave the company he had worked so hard to open, to stop trying to change his image, to fix the damage his father had done. Yes, partially he blamed his father. Lucius was the one in the first place to drag him in this mess; but mostly Draco hated himself, that he had thought that he could make things right if he walked up to the Dark Lord like a lamb for slaughter.

He could hear a ticking noise and that confused him. It was like something frantically hitting wood. Opening his eyes he scanned the room. Nothing was moving but the knocking, yes, knocking, was there. Standing up he walked back to the hall, wand at the ready as he realised it was the door. Someone was knocking on his door as if their life was depending on it. Undoing the wards and collecting himself, he opened the door to be met with a mass of brown hair and a frantic witch.

"Granger?" he questioned, as the witch noticed that he had finally opened the door and pushed him aside in a rush, warding and locking the mahogany doors.

"What the hell is happening, Granger? I don't recall calling you over for a midnight stroll," he hissed as the witch, once satisfied with her work, turned to look at him, eyes shining with fire.

Draco was taken aback by her sudden appearance. He had never had the best relationship with the witch and she certainly didn't think otherwise. He could say that midnight visits he got from Astoria, or the witches he used to bring home before he made the arrangement official, but Granger? No. Never her. She looked a mess. Her hair was worse than a bird's nest, even though he remembered that earlier that day they were in a neat plait. She was still in her working clothes and she looked tired, he guessed.

His patience was running rather thin tonight. He had a mental blackout in the middle of developing a new potion - almost a panic attack - and the insufferable know-it-all had to appear in his sole moment of weakness. Merlin seemed to be against him tonight.

"I am asking you again," he started, folding his arms. "What - "

"Listen Malfoy, this is the last place I want to be right now, so believe me, the reason why I am here is really important," she said, looking around. "Are we alone?" she asked, after a moment of examining the shadows.

"Yes. But don't worry, I'm not planning on taking advantage of you," he smirked at the witch, who gave him a look of utter disgust and worry that he didn't quite get.

"What happened, Granger?" he asked again, once he saw that the witch was trying to find a way to break him some news. He could see the gears spinning in her head and she was chewing her bottom lip so badly that if it weren't Granger, he would have found sexy.

"They found Katharine dead," Hermione said. She could see realisation in his eyes, and confusion.

"What do you mean dead, Granger?" he hissed, his hand gripping his wand harder. "We saw her this afternoon. She insisted that you should come to our little business meeting as you were working to help her get the paperwork for the products she imported," Draco scowled, looking at the petite witch. He wanted to believe that she was fucking with him and everything was a prank, but the haunted look in her eyes and the emergency in her voice told him otherwise.

Hermione narrowed her eyes dangerously at him. "You think I'm playing you, Malfoy?" she hissed in retort. "She was found dead three hours ago in her hotel room and unfortunately we were the last ones to see her alive, and can you fathom what that means?" she asked the blond, her wand hand shaking.

Realization hit him like the Hogwarts express. She wasn't fucking around, and based on what she said, they were in deep shit. Running a hand through his hair, he closed his eyes, trying to get a grip on the situation.

"How did she die, and why are we suspects?" he asked, opening his eyes and narrowing them almost immediately upon seeing the witch chewing her lip again. "Granger?"

"We aren't just suspected. They found your DNA and mine on her. Harry told me that when they found the body, the walls were painted with her blood and that she had marks on her as if she put up a fight. In the end she was killed with a Sectumsempra," she explained. "They guessed that I tried to tie her up and in the process I left hair on her, and they think you cast the curse and raped her," she finished, raising her eyes to meet his stormy ones.

Draco was now pacing up and down the hall, his hands grabbing fistfuls of his hair. Hearing how she died and what those bloody fools thought had him jumping to all possible scenarios. "Seriously, you don't believe that I would rape and kill a really important business partner just for the sake of getting you thrown in Azkaban and being so reckless that I forgot to erase my doings now, do you?" he hissed, pointing his wand at her.

Hermione, though, didn't budge. She pointed her wand at him too. "Are you that dumb?" she hissed threateningly as she neared him. "Listen, I came here to make a deal with you. Someone has it out for both of us, and I don't think that you would be capable of something like that. You aren't careless," she added, taking a deep breath.

He wanted so much to smirk and tease her but the situation didn't call for it. He didn't have anything to lose if he made that deal with her. She would get them out of that mess. She was able to get Scarhead out of a lot of shit during the war, and now that she had only gained knowledge to a lot more issues, she could get him out of this mess. At least he was an intelligent being that could survive alone, in comparison to Potty.

"Name it," he said, lowering his wand as he watched her straighten her posture and look him straight in the eye.

"We will work as a team to clear our names and when this circus is over, you will never have to spend time with me unless it's business related," she said, her tone bossy like he remembered it back from school.

Of course, as Draco Malfoy, he had everything he ever imagined, but the offer she was giving him was tempting. He wouldn't have to talk to her out of working conditions and she could help him rebuild his reputation. She was a war heroine after all, and everything she touched or liked was suddenly important.

"Deal," he agreed, as he reached out to her to bind the agreement.

He was surprised to see the look of confusion in her eyes. It wasn't about the hand shake and the binding; he guessed it was more about letting her hands touch him. Well, he could say that it pained him, but it didn't. He had hated the term 'mudblood' ever since his aunt took the pleasure of torturing her in front of him and making her bleed. He had spent the rest of that night in his private bathroom throwing up and cutting his palm to watch the blood. It was the same. Same red, same substance.

Hermione shook her head to clear away her thoughts and shook his hand, watching as he performed the binding and let her hand. ''Where to, Granger? " he asked, pocketing his wand.

She took a moment to pocket hers too and looked up. "We need to get away from here. The Japanese Ministry of Magic is searching all the floo networks there in case we appear, and they planned to confront you in the morning. Do you have any place that the Aurors or generally the Ministry doesn't know of?" she asked as he looked at her, eyes meeting for a moment before he took out a piece of parchment and he wrote down an address. Handing it to her she silently read it guessing that the house was under the Fidelius charm.

"First we have to Floo somewhere quickly. You said they would wait till morning for me, so I guess that they won't be checking my network," he started, and led her to the living area.

"I doubt they will -" Hermione started but as soon as she passed the door and stood next to the blond, her eyes met a pair of bespectacled emerald green .

"Harry?" she asked, her mind refusing to accept the betrayal that glimmered in his eyes


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** The Harry Potter series and all the ccharacters except the ones iI created belong to J.K. Rowling. I don't make any profit.

 **Beta: Myka Ren**

 **A/N:** If you have any question please do ask and I will answer it in an **A/N** in following chapters.

 **Tales In The Mist**

 **Chapter 2**

Her world had frozen. She stared at the man in front of her cursing herself for falling into that trap. How couldn't she realise that there was no way they would come after him in the morning. Hermione took a good look of the room. The windows were closed and Harry was blocking their only way out. She didn't want to hit or fight him, but there was no way out. Maybe negotiating would work but Harry was as stubborn as she was.

"What are you doing here Hermione?" Harry asked after a while. She knew she could keep silent but that would piss him off more than he already looked. The forest green that she so loved to look into and trusted was a vibrant green like an enchanted forest, ready to pull you in its depth and keep you there forever.

She never liked it when he got that look. Of course she had seen it a lot of times in the past. In their third year when he had met them in the Shrieking Shack after overhearing a talk about Sirius betraying the Potters, in their fifth year in the department of mysteries when she saw him after they returned to Hogwarts, when he was chasing Snape and Malfoy after Dumbledore was killed. There weren't a lot of times but she couldn't recall all the times she had seen him mad now.

"I'm here because he needed to know, and for, other reasons." She answered gulping as she noticed the sharp intake of air her best friend -if she still had the right to call him that- took. "I told you before and I'm telling you again we weren't the ones to do it" she said taking the opportunity to talk some sense to him before hell went loose.

"And why shall I believe you Hermione?" He hissed at her, a thing he shouldn't have done.

"Have I ever given you a reason to not do so Harry?" She said threateningly low, taking in how the man in front of her tensed. "I always told you the truth and you always saw that I'm right. What changed now? Gotten the position of head Auror and you have to prove that even if your best friend is framed for a murder she didn't do, you have to take her in and lock her in Azkaban till you find bloody evidence that she is innocent? And then what Harry James Potter? You'll start apologizing to her and everything will be good? Like ' I'm bloody Harry Potter, I kiss unicorns and sneeze rainbows and Hermione will forgive me every fucking time'?" She now yelled and even Malfoy turned to give her a surprised look.

"Hermione is not like that and you know- " Harry started his eyes pleading.

"Know what?!" She hissed lowering her wand from her sleeve carefully enough that Harry did not notice.

"I know that you are bloody innocent but you act like you have really killed her!" Harry now yelled back. "All the evidence point at you and the slimy git next to you. I can't turn a blind eye to that and there were eye witnesses that saw you with her! I couldn't, no, I didn't believe it from the first moment we found the evidence that you would ever kill someone but you act as if you did and then you escape the Ministry and come directly here! Believe it or not Hermione you may or may not have done it, which I frankly don't know what to believe now, but you are making yourself look guilty!" he finished giving her and the blond a dirty look.

"Believe whatever you want Potter" Malfoy finally said as, Hermione noticed, had his wand too ready. "But the situation hasn't changed. Granger didn't do it and neither did I. Ludicrous isn't it? That in school we were the ones supposed to give away our friends to save our own head and now you are doing the same thing to save your position as Auror?" Malfoy continued a small smirk tugging on his lips.

"This has nothing to do with school Malfoy." Harry hissed turning his look away from the witch.

"Oh but it has. You Gryffindors walked around as if you were owning the place just because you claimed you would never leave a friend while we, the big bad Slytherins had friendships for political alliances and to keep up with our name, but look how the roles have changed." He provoked him.

"I would never leave Hermione if she needed me! I unlike you, have people that I care about!" Harry said taking steps towards them.

"But you unlike I are willing to put your friend in jail for something they didn't do without further investigation." Malfoy hissed, moving his hand with his wand giving her a signal to get ready.

Hermione couldn't believe that she saw him giving her a signal. Not having both Harry and Ron teaching her the things they learned in the Auror training program would have let her confused and not able to recognise it but she did and what was surprising her more was how he knew of the signals. But then again both of her best friends were talking about how people knew the signals and that they needed to find new ones.

She turned her eyes on Harry to check that he hadn't seen that and seeing him still arguing with Malfoy, completely oblivious to the movement left her thinking how much had Malfoy pissed him to lose a movement that he was taught to recognise. But she couldn't delve in that thoughts now that Harry was close.

She could see his wand in his cloak's pocket. Covering her wand she took a step back to avoid the chance of hitting Malfoy too. She couldn't have him passed out now that he was crucial for getting out of that bloody house as they couldn't use the floo and the Aurors already were in the front yard.

"You'd never understand" Harry continued as he stopped just in front of Malfoy.

"Oh really? Try me then" Malfoy replied turning to look at Hermione and just as Harry was moving to take his wand Hermione saw her opening.

"Stupefy!" Hermione cried hitting Harry with a red flash of light. She stood frozen as she watched Harry's unconscious body fall limp onto the carpeted floor and had to blink a couple of times to realise what she had just done. She had stupefied her best friend, the brother she never had, and the man that stood by her side come hell or high water. But now that hell came he wasn't at her side, and that hurt her more than anything ever did.

"Granger" Malfoy said and she turned sharply to look at him only to meet his eyes. They weren't the stormy grey they usually were but now they were a liquid silver that had some shadowed waves. A grey ocean of quicksilver.

"For fuck's sake, Granger!" Malfoy yelled and she blinked again her eyes narrowing.

"What?!" She yelled back just as the Aurors started firing spells at the door.

"Take my hand" he instructed her and she gave him a look.

"I thought we couldn't aparate from inside" she tried to reason taking his hand and soon the all too familiar feeling of being pressed in a tube and that your lungs are pressed so tightly that they might disappear, engulfed her.

The feeling soon disappeared and she was panting for air as she took in the scenery of the place they had appeared. A field with green grass up to the point the eye could see. A cottage stood at the end of the hill overlooking the sea. Turning to Malfoy, she saw that he was looking the house with a sad look almost as if something terrible had happened in that house.

She walked over to him and looked at the house. It wasn't like an ordinary cottage. The walls were from stone and the windows were painted blue. It looked more like a windmill -well a cottage sized windmill- than a cottage.

"Is that it?" She asked as he left an audible sigh.

"Yes that's it." he said walking up the path and opening the wooden garden door.

She followed him silently as he ensured some basic things like water and electricity was supplied and unlocked the door. The inside of the house left her stunned. That house wasn't at all like the Manor or a house where you expected Malfoys to live. The wood on a floor was a light coloured one and there was a ladder that lead to the second floor where she guessed were the bedroom. There was a kitchen with a marble sink and island, and an old fashioned black stove. The cupboards and chairs were made of wood painted white.

There wasn't a special room for the living area. The whole room was the kitchen and the living room and a small room in the back for the bathroom. The ladder was attached to the wall on the left of the door. The loveseat and the armchair was in white but not from leather like the ones she saw when she had visited his office in the past. A charming curved wooden coffee table and surprisingly a flat TV attached to the wall above a smaller table for the remote and photographs. The windows on the walls made the room look enchanting with the hues of the early morning.

She was amazed by the house so far. It was excluded and really pretty. She couldn't go see the bedroom and it would look weird if she walked in the bathroom just to see how it is.

"I planned on coming here with Astoria for our honeymoon. It belonged to my mother and she gave it to me as a gift for the wedding." Malfoy said making her turn to look at him as he gazed out of a window.

"I guess that I ruined your plans now that I came here." Hermione said running her fingers across the marble top of the kitchens island.

"You being here isn't ruining anything. We have to stay here until we can go back to Britain" he said.

"But you said you were keeping it for your honeymoon. I'm sure me being here is dirtying it. Since I'm a mud-" she started but soon he turned sharply to look at her, giving her a hard look.

"Don't you dare say that word." He hissed, "You are a muggleborn, yes, but not that word" he said confusing her even more with his tone.

"You used to enjoy calling me that. What's changed now?" She asked folding her arms staring directly in his eyes.

"Something changed. Not your business" he answered folding his arms too, a hard look on his face.

She really didn't understand why he always put on a mask. It reminded her of a book she had read once. The lady in the book used to compare the masked feelings and fake expressions as masked from the Japanese Theatre. In that theatre the actors and actresses wore masks to show the people their characters emotions. She could see one on him now. He stood there with his emotionless when, she guessed, underneath that mask a raging storm was taking place.

"It is my business since I'm the one you mostly called a mudblood" she said bracing herself for what was coming.

"No its not Granger, leave it." He said moving away from the window and before she could even open her mouth he had climbed up the ladder, leaving her alone with the first rays of the morning sun.

Hermione was from her nature a curious person but she didn't chase after him for answers. Something must had happened to him to stop calling muggleborns, mudbloods but right now she couldn't care less. Walking over to the loveseat she laid down on her back staring up at the wooden ceiling. Who had it in for them? And why kill Katharine? The only sure thing is that they knew that's he would be meeting them. It all suddenly seemed to much to her now that she could relax and let her tiredness wash over her. The British Ministry of magic was after them, the Japanese too as Katharine was working there.

As sleep was about to wash over her she shoot up rushing to the ladder and stopping at the first step. "Malfoy!" She called out looking up at his form standing at the top hanging over the railing.

"What is it Granger?" He said impatiently.

"We need to check Katharines house" she said watching him as he narrowed his eyes thinking.

"Why would we do that?" He asked making her roll her eyes, which lead to him growling at her.

"The ones that framed us obviously knew that she would be meeting us. She had told me once that she kept a meeting agenda and everything important in her house in Japan. We need to go there" she explained seeing him understanding what she meant.

" And how are we going to enter a country that is after us? We can't go there through a magical mean." He asked looking at his clock.

"The muggle way of course." She smirked earning a raised eyebrow from the blondisclaimer: The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the ones I created belong to J.K. Rowling. I don't make profit from this.

Beta: Myka Ren

A/N: If you have any questions please ask! Enjoy!

Tales In The Mist

Chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the ones I've created belong to J.K. Rowling. I dodon't make any profit.

 **Beta** : **Myka** **Ren**

 **A** / **N** : I'm so sorry! I know I took a long time to update but we are renovating the house and I didn't have a lot of time for writing. Thank you **TheSlytherinPrincess13** for your critique iI will try to work on that. Follow me on Tumblr **Mabel** **K**.

 **Warning: M for language and masturbation scenes. If you don't want to read them skip the shower point.**

 **Tales** **In** **The** **Mist**

 **Chapter** **3**

It took a while to get dressed and glamoured. Granger had straightened her hair, changed its colour to a dirty blonde, which flecked like honey in certain lights, and vanished her freckles. As for him she had changed his hair colour to black, a beard that he hated because of the itchiness, and some glasses. Quite a good glamour charm, he could admit. He wished that he could say he looked like a Black, but he looked more like some nerd who tried to switch to hipster, while she was all okay with a lovely dress. It was the only thing that he liked that he had seen her wear, and coupled with some flats, rather than heels, she was a good few inches shorter than him now. Next time, he swore, he would be the one dressing them.

But there wouldn't be a next time.

Taking them to Greece was a good idea but he had forgotten how slow some things could be there. Okay it was the perfect place to go since the Greek Ministry of Magic spend more time trying to find ways to pocket money without the people knowing, than use their bloody Aurors to see if they were there. And, of course, the same things happened with the Muggle Ministry. Seriously the only thing he could hear on the Greek news was about terroristic attacks and about how their government messed up everything they did and they made their crisis worse other than fixing it.

The airport was crowded and he wouldn't admit it but he was freaking out. He tried his best to not look around like some caged animal. They were going to board a bloody metal bird that based on Granger was totally safe -unless someone hijacked or was a suicide bomber deciding to take the plane down with him, as she had explained- and he was a mister David Blanchard that came from America and spend a month on Greece with his fiancée -he had shivered when Granger had said that to the lady on the check in- Veronica Steward.

This plan sucked but he couldn't complain. He couldn't come up with anything better to offer and they had no other way to go to Japan without getting arrested.

"Are you sure this is safe? I don't want my obituary to say that I died while on the run" he hissed to her as she showed their tickets when the time to board the plane came.

" Don't be absurd it is safe. Just because you don't trust the muggle transportation system it doesn't mean that it is useless. Now for you information we will take this plane until China. I can't say the name of the town but from there we will wait for about half an hour and then board another plane that will take us to Tokyo. From Tokyo we will take the bus and go to Kyoto. There is an old friend there that can help us. He is mute and deaf so whatever you do don't insult him and be patient with him. No one knows about that friend of mine except you, so we won't be found." Granger explain as she found her seat and pulled him down with her.

He wanted the window seat. He really wanted it but he wouldn't nag now. He had had enough. He had enough with this whole bloody story, had enough with running around pretending to be a muggle, had enough dealing with her. She was annoying. Bloody know-it-all that couldn't shut up about things they could do. Who did she think she was? Yes he could depend on her on some things as she had been on the run for a bloody year and the Dark Lord couldn't find them but he wouldn't allow her to boss him around. He was better than her, he had set up a company from nothing, had fought for some recognition when she strolled with the title of ' war heroine' and everyone rushed to roll the red carpet for her. Well damn her, he didn't need her. He could deal with this fucking story with his own means. Go get his mother and live in the windmill until bloody saint Potter and his dogs found evidence that cleared his name. Yes then he would demand a public apology. He didn't care about Granger. She would do whatever she wanted.

His little inner speech though was cut short when the plane took off. Even his experience of masking his feelings couldn't hide his fear and shock. Granger, on the meanwhile, was giggling and he turned glaring at her.

" Why the bloody fuck are you laughing? How come you aren't afraid of this thing flying and you are afraid to fly on a broom?" He hissed as she turned to him eyes narrowed.

" This is far safer that a broomstick and it's amusing how you were acting all cool at the airport and finally freaked out. I wonder if you will burn your clothes after that to not catch muggle germs." She hissed too , making him feel like he had rubbed off on her.

" Oh I was planning to. There's no way I will keep this clothes. What if I die from a muggle disease?" He tried to reason watching her.

" You are annoying you know that?! Can't you keep your pure blood theories for yourself for some damn hours?! If this annoys you so much then why did you keep silent when I introduced the plan and just followed me? I'm sure you have a bunch of things to do. You could swagger all around Greece buying things and sleeping with everything that has legs and then return to England once I've done all the job to prove our innocence and sleep with your fiancée too. What she doesn't know doesn't hurt her, right? And what about your friends? Will you give them each one of the girls you shagged or you would feel too bad giving them your leftovers?" Granger said, her brown eyes flashing with a dangerous glint of the fire burning in them.

"Don't you dare even say her name." he said his voice ice cold, " You don't know me Granger and don't pretend that you know my friends and family. If I were you I would keep it shut and wouldn't put my nose in things that do not concern me." He finished turning away from the woman next to him. Civility be fucked. He didn't care if she got caught. Once this trip was over he would stay in his house and let her do whatever she wanted. Damn the deal they made, he would survive her jinxes.

But then again he remembered what happened to Marrieta Edgecombe in fifth year. That woman still had scars on her face from Granger's curse. He didn't want something like that happening to him and he really didn't know what the payback curse was. He really shouldn't have let her begin the deal and seal it without making her tell what would happen to the one breaking it. Now he was stuck with her. Well there were some times when Granger was okay and that was when she was sleeping or he was in the bathroom.

Yesterday had been a really hard day. He had been up in the bedroom when Granger had yelled that she was going to take a shower. He hadn't really paid attention to her and continued looking through his books for things they could use in their trip. He didn't know how long it had passed but he stood up and walked out of the house to use the open shower. Well not really open. There was a room with walls made of stone and marble floor. His mother had found it delightful and he really didn't mind it in case the bathroom on the inside was unavailable. It really was a nice room. The floor was a mosaic with a detailed picture of the sun and the moon made with small pieces of coloured marble. The room had no door just a really light almost see through curtain. A small window and the shower pipes.

He had everything with him for a nice shower but he froze when he made out a form in there. Granger, it seemed, had found out about the shower and had gone there. Normally he would have left but he was frozen looking at her through the opening the curtain made from the wind. She was hiding a really nice body under the clothes she wore. He knew what he was doing was bad but he was mesmerized. What he saw was the perfect inspiration for a painting. She was there with her face tilted upwards facing the water. He followed with his eyes every drop of water until his eyes fell on her breasts. He could swear that they would fit perfectly in the palm of his hands and the most agonising was seeing the water drops fall from the tips of her nipples. Nice rounded hips and long tanned legs. He could swear that he had forgotten even his own name by looking at her but the pain from his hardened member brought him back to reality and he had fled the scene immediately. In a couple of minutes he was in the shower of the bathroom with the hot water splashing on his back. Whatever he did he couldn't take Grangers image off his mind and his erection certainly couldn't help.

Cursing rather colourfully he stroked his member having in mind her image and what he would do if he and been in there too. How her skin would feel under his touch, how his name would sound as he worked wonders on her breasts, how the feeling of being inside her would feel and before he could fantasize about her climax he had already reached his, emptying himself on the shower tiles. He knew that what he had done was his dirtiest secret but he could live with it as long as he could keep the memory of her body.

Returning to now, he was fighting really had to not stare at her. He wasn't a creep but he couldn't help but wonder what colour was her bra and whether or not she was wearing one of those satin ones that allowed one to see the small perks of her nipples from the light material of her dress. Oh how he wanted to slap himself. He had had many girls with far greater bodies and Astoria was a really beautiful woman with long milky white legs that could make all his fantasies come true but Granger? Granger was the forbidden fruit. A jewel hidden from the world that begged to be found. It was ridiculous to think that Weasley had her for a while. He didn't deserve her. She needed a man that wouldn't bore her, a man that could match her intellectually, and a man that would make her feel every bit of a woman and that could set her on fire with the same intensity that she could. A man like him. No, no, no that was wrong. That was his lust talking. He was a great man but he certainly wasn't the man that deserved such a woman.

Closing his eyes he let all his tiredness take over and drag him to sleep. His mind had taken a strange and forbidden path. The Granger path was a path he had forbidden himself from wandering ever since school. He had dirty little secrets but he wouldn't allow himself to dig up all of them regarding Granger. She was a chapter in his life that he had forced to close and he wouldn't let it open again.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer** : The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the ones I created belong to J.K. Rowling. I make no profit from this story.

 **Beta** : **Myka** **Ren**

A/N:A big thank you to **Sora** **Loves** **Rain**! Your review really made my day! There was a problem in the format and I'm posting it again and a big thank you to **LightofEvolution** for their review about this chapter!

 **Tales** **In** **The** **Mist**

 **Chapter** **4**

Finally she could relax. Arguing with Malfoy was the last thing on her to-do list and now that he was asleep she could have some hours of peace.

In those calm moments her mind begun wondering how her friends were, she hadn't said goodbye and she didn't like how she had escaped from Harry. What had she done to ever deserve something like that? Was this her punishment because she had called it off with Ron after so many years of a comfortable relationship? She didn't think so.

Her relationship with Ron was something a lot of people had accepted and actually was waiting to happen, but after some time it wasn't what she had wanted. Ron was kind hearted, loving and the best person to be around and he wasn't the reason for their break up. It wasn't the sex either. The sex was nice. Passionate, slow and sweet, absolutely nothing to fault him for, it was to be expected from a man who was equally as passionate and caring in all aspects of his life. But it hadn't worked. It wasn't his fault. It was hers. There were countless nights that she spent in the kitchen of Grimmauld place, before they had decided to found their own house, that she kept think of what she really wanted. Kept doubting whether it was actually with Ron where she would find happiness.

She had begun to hate that anywhere she went people kept staring at her or asked her things wanting to see how smart she was or that they kept saying that it was probably a bad day for her when she made mistakes. She wasn't perfect and Hermione knew that. She read books, knew a lot of things, could take on even the most experienced Aurors and beat them but she did make mistakes. One mistake was during Ron's birthday. It wasn't like she was on her days of the month or she was under the weather or anything but when Ron came home hoping that she would be waiting for him on their bed with the sexiest lingerie she owned, he found the apartment empty. She had baked a cake, prepared his favourite food but when a friend of hers called her in the afternoon crying she decided to go help her rather than wait for Ron. Yes she knew she would have better leave a message or do something else for Ron but she wasn't sorry she went to the girls aid and certainly hadn't let Ron make her feel bad about it. That wasn't much of a mistake but others thought it was.

After that incident she really felt like something was wrong with them. Sex gradually got boring and worse, Ron began acting more like a child needing to be pampered than a responsible adult, Molly kept pressuring her about a wedding she had never thought about. She didn't want to go get married and start popping babies for Ron, that wasn't for a woman like her. Hermione knew that she was the only one seeing the faults in their relationship.

She needed more passion, she wanted fire. Yes fire. She wanted to get in a relationship so fierce that she would look at that person and her body would heat up immediately. She wanted to tease that man and taste the flames of hell on her tongue as she would claim him as hers. She wanted someone that would understand what she was saying and challenge her. She wanted a man that would only be made for her. Someone to fit her perfectly. Her end of the puzzle, her moon to his sun.

She wanted a challenge and Ron was an open book that she had read too many times. At some point she had realised that what she felt was no longer love like love for a partner, it was love for family and he was like Harry. They were her brothers. They were like that ever since school but she had accepted everyone wishes for them to be together that she chose to ignore that fact.

But now Hermione was stuck with the git. He could be nice at times, when he wasn't sneering, calling her names, nagging about everything even because she had added two spoons of sugar in his coffee instead of one. They had been living together for two days but she had caught up to some small things he liked. He liked his coffee black with almost no sugar, he drunk his tea with lemon and when he was feeling moody with honey and milk. He was not the morning type and spend more time doing research during the night that the morning. A couple of times she had caught him stargazing while lying on the wheat field. But still there were a lot of things that confused her.

He wouldn't accept her saying the word ' mudblood'. She had no idea why but he seemed to be disgusted just by hearing it. He didn't want to talk about his feelings for his family or fiancée. He could spend a whole day not speaking just observing things and reading. She didn't even know he liked to read. He was a mystery. A puzzle, a broken statue. She could see that. He was still broken. Just by looking in his eyes she could see that. Had no one ever tried to put him back together? Had they all decided to look past a boy that made the wrong choices?

She wasn't innocent about that. Hermione herself had spent a year after the war loathing the man sitting next to her just because his choices weren't the right ones. Her view of him had changed after Mrs Malfoy had met her. When she first heard that Mrs Malfoy had arranged to meet her she had been scared. She didn't know what to expect of her but remembering that she had lied to Voldemort about Harry being dead made her relax.

Narcissa hadn't come to make her feel bad or call her names. She had come to ask her to help her son. She had seen fit to ask the girl as she quoted ' Mister Potter is a really influential man that can ask for anything but he wouldn't agree to that. He is kind of hot heated when it concerns my son.'. Malfoy wanted to start over but no one would give him a chance. Hermione had taken it upon her to find a loophole in the whole system to help him and that of course was a secret she would never admit unless Narcissa ever allowed her. Malfoy needed to save his family and Voldemort wanted to play and destroy his family honour. It hadn't been his choice.

She had argued for a really long time with the Wizengamot and the Minister but the used her best card. The Ministry was fighting for equality something that the people really needed and she hit them there. They had seen his memories, called him innocent and now whether they wanted it or not they would let him rebuild what his father and Voldemort had destroyed in their paths.

Hermione sighed tiredly once she had grown bored with the movie she was watching. Malfoy was still asleep and it hadn't been long since she had fallen asleep and woken up herself. They still had a couple of hours to go and her books was in her bag in the storage space above their seats. She didn't want to wake him up since he looked so calm and peaceful and was like that baby angel paintings that flew around naked. Well if he ever learned that she had compared him with that babies then she was a 100 percent sure that he would start walking around butt naked with only a satin sheet to cover his private parts.

She only hoped that Renji wouldn't turn them in. He owed her a favour, yes, but she couldn't force the man to house her and Malfoy and make him promise that he wouldn't say a thing.

A movement from next to her caught her eye and turned to look at Malfoy who seemed like he could set the whole plane on fire with his eyes.

"Are we still not there?" He asked as he sat up to stretch and get more comfortable.

" We have a couple of hours left. Do you want some coffee? The drinks trolley will reach us soon. I could ask for some." She said deciding to play nice. If she kept being nice to him maybe he could tolerate her more.

"Thanks Granger, I'd like that." He said rubbing his eyes, "Where is the toilet in this thing?" He asked turning to look at her.

In that moment she could admit that he was a stunning man. His hair still that whitish blonde were tousled and seemed so soft she wanted to touch them, his eyes were a warm silver that look as if they had stardust in them and his lips. Oh his lips. They were a temptation. The way they seemed so soft and were slightly parted as he was still part sleeping made it really hard for her to resist kissing him.

Once that thought passed through her mind she pinched herself. She couldn't be thinking like that and especially not for him.

"Once you stand up turn right and walk down the aisle. They will be on your left." She explained watching him nod and walk off, leaving her wonder why was she having such thoughts. She wasn't needy and had been in a relationship recently, - absolutely boring relationship but he had seemed like a nice guy- and she certainly didn't need to be kissed and especially from him.

As she waited for him, she had gotten a book out of her bag and gotten his coffee. It wasn't long after that that he returned and accepted his coffee.

"This coffee is like water." He nagged turning to her.

"I'll get you a better one when we land. We will have some time to eat too." She said absentminded scanning through the book, too engrossed to notice him looking at her confused.

"Why are you nice to me?" He started.

"Why shouldn't I be?" She debated turning to look at him.

She didn't know what happened at that moment but it was like a silent message had passed between them. They didn't need to argue or fight over it. They just sat there staring in each others eyes, decoding every piece of themselves that they hid in their eyes. They didn't need words. At that moment both had found something that they were looking for and needed to solve the mystery that had raveled itself around them. Hostility wouldn't get them anywhere and if not be civil at least respect each other. If you want someone to respect you, you need to respect them


	5. Chapter 5

**Discalimer: The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the ones I created belong to J.K. Rowling. I don't make any profit.**

 **Beta: Myka Ren**

 **Tales In The Mist**

 **Chapter 5**

The ride from Tokyo to Kyoto was a pleasant one. Instead of the bus, as Granger had proposed, they took the train and reached the Kyotoshiyakusho-Mae Station after 3 hours. Draco couldn't complain. They reached the town way faster than they would do if they had taken the bus.

"Renji lives near a cafe named Kissa Ashijima. Its a four minute walk from here." Granger started looking at her map.

Draco on the meanwhile was looking around observing the place. He had never been to Japan before and he could say that it was a nice place. And their magic was really advanced. A wide range of potion ingredients as oni blood, jubokko resin, a shard of the blade of a Shinigami, and they hadn't even read all of the bottles yet. But what was even more magnificent than the potion supplies was the magic itself. It practically exuded beauty. The magical creatures that existed here were almost the double number of those back home. He only had read about Japan and its creatures but, being here was completely different. It was as if he had walked in his favourite shop and everything he wanted was free. He snorted as he realised that he had just sounded like the woman next to him, but he waved off the thought. He was simply excited.

" Do you know how to take us there?" He asked looking at the path she was drawing on the map with a pen.

"Of course I know." Granger scoffed and started walking looking at the shops.

She was oddly quiet and that was worrying him. She usually would have told him all about Kyoto and all the things she found interested here but she wasn't talking. She just kept looking at her map, walk ahead and look at the shops from time to time. Merlin he wanted to shake her. He hadn't annoyed her and certainly didn't say anything bad about her friends or Potty.

Turning his head he caught sight of a man materialising in an alley. It didn't take long for him to realise that that man was from the Ministry. Turning back ahead he reached her side with two fast steps and connected their hands lacing their fingers giving her a squeeze.

"Ministry employee, alley on our left" he mumbled and felt her squeeze back.

That woman was even more infuriating when she didn't speak. He wanted to hear her speak, he needed to hear it. He knew that hours ago he wished that she left him all alone live his life but now he wanted her to speak to him. The Granger he knew would talk, the Granger that fought him could light a fire just with the fired on her eyes, the Granger he liked would call him wrong.

The Granger he liked...

No.

Shaking his head he scolded himself. There was no Granger he liked. He didn't like Granger. No. No. No. He shouldn't be acting like this. He had a fiancée and he liked her. Astoria was nice, sweet, beautiful, an angel compared to him, but he was now claiming he liked the obnoxious woman, whose hand was so small and warm that made him feel like he had the world in his hands.

Granger eventually took a turn and stopped. He observed her as she looked around and then again at her map. She was still silent. He could practically hear the gears turning in her head as she watched the map and with a sigh he took the map from her hands gently and she didn't fight back.

" Why aren't you talking?" He started closing the map, "That's not like you at all. Its annoying." He nagged as she narrowed her eyes.

"Weren't you the one complaining when I started asking you things?" She debated giving him her most annoyed look.

"Yes I was but I feel threatened. You should have told me all about Kyoto and its magical population by now and you are just sulking looking at that map and completely ignoring me." He hissed narrowing his eyes.

" Oh is it because the great Draco Malfoy is not used to not getting all the attention? Oh poor Draco is probably going to start crying if the mudblood doesn't start talking and then he's going to start threatening people that he will commit suicide if he hears her talking more." She mocked him when suddenly she was pushed against the wall, her eyes darting up to stormy grey ones.

" Never call yourself a mudblood" he spat holding her in place, " That word caused you enough damage Granger and don't act as if I don't know it. I heard you. Yesterday when you were sleeping. You know I know exactly what day it is today. Not because you were crying in your sleep but because it was one of the worst in my life." He hissed as she looked up at him confusion mixed with anger in her amber orbs.

"You don't know me. And don't pretend that it marked you for life. You helped us that day but don't act all hurt. You used to love the word that your crazy aunt curved in my arm" she replied her words dripping with venom.

"That day scarred me." He whispered easing his grip on her, "Do you think that I enjoyed it? Guess what I didn't." He said now letting her arms free , "On that day too many things got in place in my head. Yes I don't know you but I know that you are still hurting and I'm sorry for that. You didn't deserve it. No one ever did. The war was wrong and it only took me seeing you get tortured to realise it." He said admitting something to her that he hadn't admitted even to himself.

Stepping away from her he walked away and looked at the cafe they were looking for. Looking at the map once last time he returned it to her before entering it. He wanted to be alone for a while and he knew that she would find him once she talked with that guy that would let them live with him.

That place was damn full. Both stories were full of people and the only table that seemed almost empty was one close to him where an old man was sitting. Turning to look at the man again he decided to just go for it and use whatever knowledge of Japanese he had to ask him to sit.

"Konnichiwa. Suwatte mo ii to ka?" He asked hoping that the man would let him sit. He really needed that coffee.

"You are not from here, are you?" The man asked his Japanese accent strong in his English.

"No" Draco started surprised, "I'm from England." He explained as the man nodded

" You may sit." The man said as Draco sat trying his best to not upset him.

"You confused the girl greatly." The man said again turning to look to Granger from the window.

She was still there. Her hair had returned to its bushy state and she was talking to a man that was smiling like he had won the lotto. How he wished that he could be in that man's place. How he wanted Granger to look at him so happy and expectant like she did to Renji. How he wanted her to look only that for him and only him.

For once again he froze. Granger was a dangerous topic that he had addressed way too many times in his mind already.

" You know whatever you do, you will not stop from thinking about her. " the man suddenly said breaking their silence.

"How-" Draco started but the man shook his head, "You never buried those feelings properly." He said turning to look at Draco his eyes shining with a gleam that he would have found suspicious. But that man made him feel open. He couldn't pick up his walls. He was naked in front of that man. "You always kept them alive even when you fooled yourself that you loved another woman. Before you say anything I know you are going to argue that you have to marry the Greengrass girl as its expected from you but let me ask you this Draco Malfoy." The man said making him freak out. What if this was a trap? But no one ever knew of what he felt about Granger not even his mother. "Can you see the red thread in your finger?" The man asked as Draco immediately took his eyes off him and looked at him hand, only to see a red thread being tied hard on his pinky finger.

"What is that?" He asked his eyes betraying his calm facade with the panic that was taking over him.

The older man chuckled and motioned him to look out of the window. "Follow the thread" he only said resting his head on his joined hands.

Draco looked at his hand and touched the thread, pulling it slightly as he watched where it lead. It made a loop in the middle of the road and then it reached Granger's hand. He froze. What was this thread? Why was it connecting him to Granger? Why couldn't he cut it? Who was that man? What was the meaning of this?

Turning sharply he opened his mouth to insult the man into answering him but he saw no one. He was alone and looking again at his hand he didn't see the thread again.

A girl was standing next to him smiling trying to gain his attention but he was too frozen. Who was that? What had happened? What did he mean by living up to expectations? He didn't and marrying Astoria wasn't one. He wanted to do it.

But there was this voice in his head that made him close his eyes trying to just estrange himself from the world. The voice was whispering, singing sounding exactly like the lullabies his mother used to sing him.

'You want her. Admit it. You want Hermione Granger'

 **A/N:** Hey! I put the A/N in the end to not ruin the suspense of the story. The Japanese Draco speaks hopefully means ' Hello may I sit with you?' If any of you knows Japanese and its wrong please tell me to change it. I hope Draco wasn't ooc as I thought that I made him be a bit ooc in some moments. I love your reviews so please comment anything and thank you for following this story!


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer** : The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the one I created belong to J. K. Rowling. The places I mention in the story with details are not advertised, they are mentioned in order to make the settings and the story more real. I don't make any profit.

 **Beta** : **Myka** **Ren**

 **A** / **N** : A big hug to **Sora** **Loves** **Rain** for their reviews. Also I would like to explain something about chapter 4 **oni** : **demon** , **jubokko** **tree** : a **yokai** **vampiric** **tree** , **Shinigami** : **grim** **reaper**. I hope I didn't confuse you, in this chapter I'm having the definition of things. Also, as I mentioned in the disclaimer I use the original name of places to make the story seem more real. I'm not trying to advertise those places. Enjoy!

 ** _Tales_** **In The** **Mist**

 **Chapter** **6**

Their first night in Kyoto was awkward. Hermione had no problem communicating with Renji but with Malfoy? Well that was another issue on the whole. After their talk in that alley, he kept finding excuses to be in another place and he had returned drunk from the cafe. She had seen him talking with Renji,- more like writing- and when she asked Renji about it, he had just said that he was asking about their culture and that was what made her more confused about his actions.

A couple of nights after their arrival she had stayed awake to watch over a polyujuice potion she had been making, in case they needed to leave immediately and she had heard whispers. Well she was a curious being and she followed the sound. Malfoy was sleep talking and she tensed once she heard her name. She thought that she had woken him up but she hadn't. She had been shell shocked that he was dreaming about her and a 'red thread'. Leaving the room she made a note to ask him about that but when she caught sight of him the next morning, he mumbled something about having work to do and left with Renji in the morning.

More days passed after that and she was growing distressed. What if he had betrayed her? What if he was looking for a means to leave and he was waiting for the potion to be done? What if he had found another woman? What if he didn't want to be in her presence?

Hermione would rather be dead than saying it but she loved arguing with him. She loved the thrill of waiting for his remark. She loved seeing his eyes lit up with the same fire she had been told her eyes held. She loved how his lips formed an amused almost non- existent smile when she commented something smart. She loved how he would look so satisfied after their row like he hadn't just lost a verbal fight. She loved that side of him and she hated that he was growing distant.

Two weeks had passed, and Hermione was once again making potions. One of the basic things that she hadn't had time to prepare was her bag with potions. She always had her beaded bag with her and it had some things from back when they had been on the hunt for horcruxes. Basic potion books and guides for natural potion ingredients one can find in nature, Hogwarts: A History, of course, some cooking books, and two pillows and a blanket. She needed to fill her potions stack and probably find a tent. It wasn't that she wanted to leave the house and Renji was an amazing host but she had a bad feeling. A really bad one.

Her train of thought was cut when she heard a muffled scream. Dropping the book she was holding on the couch she sprinted in the corridor and in the room she heard the scream from. Her heart broke. Malfoy was there turning in his sleep, clinching his left forearm and crying. She snapped out of it when he left another scream and before she could even realise what she was doing she was on his bed shaking him awake and crashing him in a hug mumbling soft words of reassurance and that everything was over and he, dear Merlin he, he was holding on her as if his life would end. He cried on her shoulder like every one of her friends did. He held on her even after he had stopped crying and she was still there rubbing his back and resting her head on his until he fell back asleep. Hermione learned at that moment that there still were people like her. People deeply scarred, people that were afraid of the shadows in their room, people that still relived the war in the darkest and loneliest moment.

She let go of him softly managing to unwrap his arms from around her and that was a mistake. She missed his touch immediately. She took the moment of watching him sleep, absentmindedly placing those silky blond locks in place, to think about it. She wanted to be able to feel that again, his arms around her, holding her so tightly that her broken pieces were coming back together. She wondered if she had made him feel that to? If she had managed to put at least a part of him together. She wouldn't taunt him about it, no. He had respected her. He had seen her cry at the night of the anniversary of her trip to Malfoy manor, he had apologized about it, he had done everything he could to make her feel better and talk about every bit of nonsense she might have known about the town and told her off when he was fed up about it. That had pulled her to reality. He had managed to show her that she was selfish about it. He was nice to her. He stopped calling her a mudblood. He started learning things about the muggles. He turned his back to blood supremacy.

The following morning she was startled to find him home. He hadn't left with Renji. He was there and he was struggling to cook breakfast. He was trying to cook breakfast for them. For her.

Her heart melted a bit at that thoughts but she immediately sobered up. She couldn't be thinking such things about him. Yes he was a broken person too, yes he had his weak moments, yes he wasn't bad at her but actually tried to make her be herself even if he claimed to be annoyed by her and yes he was cooking breakfast for both of them but Hermione couldn't go and get attached to him. They were fugitives. They were running away from the Aurors and they were framed for a murdered. She couldn't go get a crush on him. That would be ridiculous and the only way this would end was by her getting hurt. And getting hurt was what she certainly didn't have the time for.

But she certainly was so not following her thoughts for once. She was standing in the doorway with her hands folded looking at the man in front of her with the softest and most amused smile she had ever worn. She stayed like that for a while until he turned to add to the table what he was preparing and cursed bringing a hand to his chest.

"Bloody hell woman. Haven't they taught you to speak?" He faked glared and she waved it off still with a smile.

"Haven't they taught you to cook?" She retorted good heartedly as she opened the fridge to get the milk out.

"Ha ha very funny Granger and for your information I know how to cook." Malfoy replied before taking the milk from her and placing it between their mugs.

"Oh do tell how come." She said her eyes shining with mischief but stopped moving once she saw him have that glaced eyes expression that she named 'inner debate'. "What is it?" She asked pulling her hair up in a messy bun, suddenly self conscious of the way she looked.

"It's nothing." He mumbled quickly before sitting down. Blinking she moved over and sat where he previously sat on the table and looked down to meet his eyes.

"I know it isn't nothing, tell me." She said in her bossy voice, playfully slapping his arm when he rolled his eyes murmuring about her bossing him around.

"Fine." He said averting his eyes, "I want you to make me coffee." He said turning to look at her before burying his face in his arms, "Salazar, this is ridiculous."

"No its not ridiculous." Hermione answered her mind still not quite getting how this would be ridiculous, "I'll make you coffee. It's not like you asked me something completely inappropriate." She answered standing up and making her way around the kitchen to prepare the coffee.

"Asking what type of underwear you prefer wouldn't be inappropriate right?" He asked with a smirk as she turned to him, month open in a silent 'ah' and a pot on her other. At the sound of his chuckling she smiled again and made a grimace, "Yes, that would be inappropriate."

When she finished making the coffee and they enjoyed their breakfast in silence, Hermione was surprised to see that Malfoy was up to clean up. With magic of course because as he said ' I'm a wizard, aren't I? Where's the point of bloody being one if I don't use magic to clean?'. All these though made her narrow her eyes once he turned to look at her. This smelled fishy. He wouldn't talk to her and suddenly he's all friendly?

"Granger what-?" He started but she cut him.

"Spit it out Malfoy. You certainly want something to be so friendly." She said immediately regretting it. Something new flashed through his eyes that made her heart break. Hurt.

"So only when it fits me should I ever do something good? I guess so. I'm Draco Malfoy after all." He spat his eyes, a thundering storm of greys, getting cold and distant again.

"No Malfoy I didn't mean it. This has nothing to do with who you are." She pleaded beating herself that she had been so stupid as to suspect him.

"Of course it has! You still don't trust me obviously." He hissed confusing her.

"Where do that come from?!" She returned, "I trust you! I'm just not used to be treated like that!" She yelled moving closer to him.

"Didn't Wesley treat you like you deserved? Was he so dumb to not even see what he had in front of him?" Malfoy hissed again moving closer to her too.

"Don't bring Ron into that" she warned as now they were chest to chest "Why do you suddenly decided to talk to me? You were avoiding me these two weeks what changed now?" She demanded as he gulped his eyes betraying the debate he had with himself.

"Malfoy" she demanded as he rolled his eyes angrily, " Damn it answer me!" She yelled as he caught her hands.

"I was working okay?!" He yelled as she stopped any movement and watching him pant. "I was working. Renji took me with him in the shop he owns and I worked to gain a few money. I want to take you out." He breathed letting her arms.

Hermione took that few moments of stunned silence to work her mind around his words, "Take me out?" She asked in disbelief only to receive an eye roll.

"Yes Granger. I want to take you out. You've been working for both of us ever since we came here and I only found it logical that I should do something to reward you." He explained as if he was talking to a five-year-old.

"You could have helped me. You could have helped with some of the potions. You are a potions master after all and you know how to use the Japanese ingredients." She said as she noticed his eyes going blank, "Let me guess, you hadn't thought about that."

Malfoy shook his head licking his lips. And that was all that took to take her away from him talking. The moment of his tongue as it covered his lips, oh that lips, with moisture and how that turned them silently pinker than the colour they were. Snapping out to it, she looked up at him to see him being impatient, "What?"

"I asked you if you've ever been to Gion." He explained again as she shook her head.

"No I haven't." She answered watching as his lips turned in a victorious smirk.

"I hope you have a kimono because tonight we are going to Gion." He announced blowing her a kiss as he left her there watching him surprised and ready to protest about the time she had left.

* * *

Renji returned home around midday and Hermione still had no idea of where she was going to find a kimono and Renji was her saviour. As he explained , she couldn't find a kimono. They were insanely expensive and in Gion only the geiko and maiko wore one. So she settled for a yukata. A yukata is a simpler version of a kimono made of synthetic material or cotton and tied in the middle with a simple obi. A friend of Renji's had one for special occasions and Hermione had no idea how he convinced her to lend it to him.

When it was time to go she felt more self conscious than ever. Even more than during the Yule ball in fourth year. She wore a pastel pinkish white yukata that turned blue towards the hem. On the blue part there were fallen cherry blossom petals. On the pink part there were cherry blossoms. Her obi was a lavender colored one that had lilies of the valley on it embroidered with different shades of blue threads. Most part of her time had been dedicated to her hair. They were done in an elaborate udo with perfectly curled locks hanging out of it and two framing her face. On Renji's persistence she had added the hair ornament the lady kept with the yukata. It was an ornamental hairpin in gold with white ram Russian cherry blossoms made of rhinestone with pearls and some mini diamond like crystals. She thought that it would be a same if she wore it but once Renji had pinned it on her updo she didn't complain about it.

Taking her beaded bag, she left the room (her eyes glamoured of course to a lovely green) only to gasp once she saw Malfoy waiting by the door. He wore a dark navy blue male yukata with a grey obi and had glamoured his hair to a honey blonde with bluish green eyes. She didn't know of both had a thing for green but she liked it on him. Clearing her throat she watched him turn and look at her from head to toe. His eyes had takes a dark grey colour feeling that he liked what he saw. Wouldn't it sound bad if she said that she wanted to take him out of that yukata? Well, yes now that she returned to her logical state. She couldn't crush on him and especially not now that he would be taking her out.

"Granger you look..." He started taking in her image once more and she couldn't help but smile, " Stunning." He breathed out turning to look in her eyes.

"You don't look bad yourself." Hermione said giggling as he scoffed.

"Of course I don't look bad. I'm a Malfoy. We are the perfect creation of God." Malfoy smiling once she burst out laughing.

Opening the door for her, he reached out in a polite request for her hand. Hermione smiled and decided to push her logic aside for once and enjoy her night.

* * *

Their time at Gion had been amazing. They ate at a traditional restaurant there, bought some souvenirs, visited the Yasaka shrine, they even visited an ochaya (teahouse) and were from the lucky ones to be put in a room where a maiko was performing. The geiko was playing the samisen and the maiko was dancing what later they learned was one of the traditional dances of the old capital. Geiko is a geisha in Kyoto's dialect and maiko was an apprentice geisha. They had a nice time there laughing with the jokes and games and drinking some shots of sake (alcoholic rice drink).

Walking out of the ochaya they started walking, hand in hand, down the road until Malfoy dragged her in an alleyway and took them to a different street.

"Where are we?" Hermione asked looking enchanted at the scenery.

"This is Shirakawa Area. Not a lot of people come here but I rated about it and wanted to see it. I thought you'd like it too." He explained as he took in the scenery too. The Shirakawa Area ran along the Shirakawa Canal, which was parallel to Shijo Avenue. There were a lot of restaurants and ochayas but not so crowded as the one on the other streets and willow trees lined the canal.

"Draco this is amazing." Hermione whispered turning to look at the man next to her. He was looking at her in full astonishment. His mask was down, his eyes were sparkling with something she didn't understand. "What is it?" She asked softly turning to face him.

"Nothing. It's just you called me Draco." He breathed looking down at her.

"Do you have any problem with it?" She asked kinda crestfallen.

"No, I ... I like it." He admitted. She really wanted to joke about it asking him who he was and what had he done to Draco Malfoy but he was so sincere and open now that she couldn't do it.

"Can I ask something from you?" He asked lowly and she nodded curious about what he wanted.

"Can I hug you?" He asked averting his eyes embarrassed.

"No leave it, it's-" he started almost immediately but he stopped once she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him in a comfortable hug.

"Don't be afraid to ask for things. Whatever it is I'll help you with it." She said softly against his chest.

If there was one thing that she learned that night was that she didn't need logic for everything. That didn't mean that she would stop using it but she realised that some things don't need to work with logic and pushing aside feelings wasn't the solution, especially specially when it concerned him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer** : The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the one I created belong to J. K. Rowling. The places I mention in the story with details are not advertised, they are mentioned in order to make the settings and the story more real. I don't make any profit.

 **Beta** : **Myka** **Ren**

 **A** / **N** : Thank you **Guest** and **pgoodrichbloggs** for your reviews! I really appreciated them and that was exactly my intent guest, to explain it little by little and have you guys cooking slowly (if that makes any sense). Anyway, Enjoy!

 ** _Tales In The Mist_**

 ** _Chapter 7_**

Katharine's house looked exactly the same with how it looked when he had once met her there to sign their contract. The only difference was the Aurors guarding the place. He found that stupid. Who were they guarding it from? Them? Were they so stupid as to think that if they had indeed killed Katharine they would attempt to get in her house?

Granger had managed to get them in the house with ease. Avoiding people and slipping in before they closed doors was simpler that what he had thought but they had gotten in, now all they had to do was wait for the Aurors to lock and leave. They were disillusioned after all. It wasn't like they slipped in in bright daylight trying to act all cool.

Once they had left Draco tapped his head with his wand and soon he was visible again. Granger who had moved in another room before walked in the living room and gave him a look that he knew that meant questioning about something she over thought. Living with Granger for almost a month made it really hard to think without bringing her face or how warm she is in his mind. After all he worked years to lock all the feelings he once had about her in a tiny box left abandoned in the back of his mind and then she had come one night and forced it open just with a hint of her smell.

He had never stood close enough to smell her but still when she had pointed her wand at his throat the night this circus started he had caught a whiff, exactly like back in their third years that she had punched him. If Draco didn't know himself so well he might have thought that he had a kink for women that can punch the living shit out of you but he knew that wasn't the issue. It had been and still was her. How many times had he jerked off in his private bathroom in the Manor because he had dreamed of her? How many times had he imagined what he could do to her if he got the chance? How had he wished he could take her on the desk during that potion period in sixth year when Slughorn had appointed them to work together and she was biting her lip when thinking (something she still did and it drove him crazy) and how he had gotten so hard when she had spilled some mermaid scales and a small 'fuck' had left her lips.

Draco could write a book about little things that she did that turned him on and that she never realised she did. He wasn't a creep, always watching her and such but he couldn't not notice her. She was shining. In the blurry and foggy hill that his life was, she was that ray of sunshine that you spare a moment to look and follow. She was the warmth of a nice cup of tea during a thunderstorm, she was a dream, so perfect and real that he wished he could have every night.

He wasn't a fool.

In that moment just thinking of all the things he had thought about her at school, all the things he his behind the word 'mudblood', he realised that he had never closed that box properly. If he had he would have been married by now, he wouldn't have gotten so drunk the day he read on the daily prophet that she was with Weasley, he wouldn't have been checking her out every time she walked in his office wearing a new skirt or generally every bloody time she walked in. And Merlin, oh sweet Merlin, if he really had indeed closed the box, he had just kicked it open accepting everything. He loved Astoria. She was a woman no one could hate and she was so sweet and perfect. A flower between the dirt but he didn't love her more than just a person he had to protect. Yes he had had sex with her, he found her body of his liking, how nicely wet she got, how her moans echoed when she climaxed, how amazingly tight she was, but it was all wrong. He was a man, he enjoyed sex but there were times he couldn't do it. He had thrown up a lot of times while Astoria was blissfully asleep. Breaking a betrothal always came with a price and he didn't have anything that was worth paying it. Even Astoria had told him that it was all wrong and that she couldn't she him more than a brother. Both had tried and failed, and when Astoria had left for Paris she wanted to be touched. She had asked it so nicely and she really looked like she needed that release. He was to be her husband. Even if they couldn't make it work he had to please her.

Turning his attention again to Granger he found her glaring at him with her arms folded under her breasts and her foot tapping the floor in a fast irritated pattern.

"What?" He asked folding his own hands too.

"I was asking you." She responded rolling her eyes, "How do you know so many Auror techniques?" She asked making his freeze in place.

Talking about his knowledge of Auror moves and techniques was a topic he didn't want to discuss with her but knowing that if he didn't the matter would her worse and that she would definitely try and do the same thing as payback made him rethink of it. He knew she could be a right bitch at times but he didn't want to get her bitch side now.

"I had wanted to be an Auror." He said quietly averting his eyes. He could hear her walking closer and damn he could smell her. Cinnamon and gardenias. How could she naturally smell like that was really making him wonder but her smell was home go him. They were on the run and there were high chances they got caught right at that moment but he felt safe. Like it wasn't them against the world.

"I took the test twice. Both times I had scored perfectly but they had turned down my first try. Then I took the training. I wasn't with Potters group, if you are wondering. I finished the training being one of the best but that wasn't enough. It wasn't enough that I could be one of best Aurors in there. They always thought that I would -" he said but he turned to look at Granger once she cut him.

"Turn on them." She said softly and he nodded, jaw tense.

"I'm sorry Draco." Granger continued and he relaxed once he heard his name roll off her tongue.

That woman was his salvation and damnation at the same time. She could pick him up, make him rise from the ashes like a Phoenix and she could break him down as if he was a small sand hill that she stepped on on accident on the beach.

"Its okay." He only responded trying to not meet her eyes or she would see right through him. Funny how he now realised that he was so broken and that she was the only one who had a way of glueing his pieces together (yes he knew what a glue is.).

Taking advantage of that silent moment he walked away and towards a wardrobe. Kneeling down he took off his wand and started tapping the floor listening carefully to the taps.

"What are you doing?" Granger asked kneeling down next to him.

"She has a secret door somewhere here and if you find the hollow tile then you can take it off and open the trap door." He said smirking once he levitated the tile and charming the door open.

"From here on we can touch. Katharine told no one of this secret room. I found it accidentally." He added before she could even ask.

The room was dusty and smelled of mold and old stuff. Pulling a string a weak lightbulb lit up and they both froze when they saw the walls. The walls were covered with their pictures. Pictures from work, from common meetings, the Daily Prophet. Articles about their life. ' Golden couple!', 'Draco Malfoy, ex death eater to wed?', 'War heroine and Ex death eater working together?'.

Draco looked at the photos more closely while Granger had moved towards the desk.

"Come look at this." He heard her say faintly and turning as if he had no control over his body he stood by her watching the documents.

"She was spying on us." Granger added but words had faded once he saw a picture of his mother there.

"She's working with death eaters." Draco said suddenly turning to look at Granger, his mother's photograph in hand.

"How can you be so sure?" She asked and he pointed at a paper with three names. Collins, Dooley, Wilkings.

"These three were in the Dark Lords circle. They were mostly in the dungeons guarding the prisoners and raping for fun. I hated these guys. They never managed to climb their way in His inner circle but they certainly were capable but not trust worthy. They were idiots and messed things up sometimes but I don't know how come they haven't caught them." Draco hissed.

"Seems like Katharine wanted us dead as much as they did and in the end they killed her because she knew too much. But if they can't kill us how can we know their next move?" Granger wondered looking around.

"We know what they are after and they possibly are expecting us to get caught." He continued handing her the photo.

"They are after my mother." He explained and pointed at the back, "And they are going to set a trap with her as a bait if they find her first. We need to get supplies from Renji and the potions and go. We can't risk her life." He demanded and Hermione nodded taking as many of the documents and files as she could and putting them in her bag.

"Where is your mother? Just to know if we should take a tent." She said climbing up the ladder and going in the main house area shortly followed by Draco.

"She's in a village in Norway . I'll tell you more when we'll get to Renji's." He explained closing and sealing the door before accepting her hand and aparating away with a loud pop.

Once in the apartment, Draco sat at the couch and rubbed his face with his hands thinking of how big of a mess his life had gotten. What had he done to get those bastards after him? He had never even talked to them and he doubted Granger had met them.

"Hey don't be like that. If they had found her we would have learned by now and I'm sure miss Narcissa wouldn't leave the village she's staying now that people accuse you if a murder. I think she knows that you wouldn't do it." Granger said softly taking the place next to him. He wanted to turn and wrap her in his arms and never have to deal with any of this shit. He wanted to just take in her scent and warmth and sleep his worries away but such a move would make her mind go crazy and immediately start analyzing his actions. As much as he liked her, found her annoying at times and couldn't live without her, he hated her brain.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer** : The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the one I created belong to J. K. Rowling. The places I mention in the story with details are not advertised, they are mentioned in order to make the settings and the story more real. I don't make any profit.

 **Beta** : **Myka** **Ren**

 **A** / **N** : Thank you **pgoodrichbloggs** for your review! I'm sorry! I know its been over a month but I got busy with family drama and studying to retake my entrance exams. From now on I will try to update once a week or more.

 **Tales In The Mist**

 **Chapter 8**

Hermione didn't know where they were but the view was breathtaking. They had left Japan on the same day they went to Katharine's house. Renji had been kind enough to give them his tent and all the necessary things to survive for almost a month. She had ensured they had all all the necessary potions, books, clothes and dry food. They took the airplane again after they disguised themselves and reached Norway. That was the easy part. The difficult part was to go near the village without setting off any wards the Aurors may have set.

The moment they aparated in the forest Malfoy wanted to go to his mothers house. Well if she had heard that from Harry or Ron she would take it as normal but she knew that Malfoy was desperate to ensure that his mother was okay to think logically. After all, she knew all too well the feeling of wanting to protect your family.

Thinking of her parents almost brought her to tears. They had set the camp and Malfoy was placing wards and protection enchantments. Looking off at the view she wondered how her parents were. She had yet to find a way to restore their memories. Simply reversing the spell was extremely risky. For a magical being the chances of success are 15 out of a hundred considering that 5 years had passed since casting the spell. For a non magical being the chances are almost zero. She was trying to find another way but as more time passed, getting her parents back without brain damaging them looked like a fleeting dream.

Moving closer to the cliff she looked back at the tent and Malfoy before turning around again. It was cold, being so high in the mountain and the weather was gloomy. Dark clouds passed above them roaring with thunders. Living with Harry and Ron in a tent had been easy. Staying with Malfoy would be challenging. She didn't want to lie and say that she didn't know why.

Malfoy was completely different and she felt different. Not that she would admit. She didn't want to grow attached to him, something she subconsciously did. Her heart had been broken way too many times and letting herself feel for him would only end up badly. That man was...irritating, clever, irritably handsome, a git but she felt like when this whole ordeal would be over that she would miss him. She hated herself enough that she loved the way they argued. How he would lean closer to her until their faces were inches apart. How his eyes would change to a dark grey like the clouds on a thunderstorm. How her eyes moved from his to his lips and he would lick them.

Hermione didn't want to feel. She wanted to block everything out. She was a logical girl and logical girls don't start creating feelings for the man accompanying them on a quest to find their right.

Hermione Granger was afraid to fall. How long had it been since she had let herself fall? Since Ron... Why did she have to feel now? Why not when she was going out with Smith? Why not when eh dated Cormac? Why now? Why did she feel like she wouldn't be able to live without his eyes? Why did she hope? Why dream of something that would never happen? He was getting married and Hermione would be left with a 'what if?'. What if he loved her back? Would he worship her? Would he be willing to break his pureblood tradition? Would he make her whimper when she climaxed?

She didn't want to get herself in such a condition. She didn't want to fall in the emotional well.

She could hear her name being called in the distance but her eyes were glassy allowing her to get lost on her train of thought. She didn't want to think. She wanted to shut her brain off for once in her lifetime. No Draco Malfoy. No feelings. No world.

A hand softly touched her shoulder and she closed her eyes turning to face the man that haunted her.

She met a pair of thundering eyes. Dark grey mixed with lighter shades of grey just like the clouds. Those eyes immediately softened once they met hers. How was he feeling? Did he have debates like that too? Was this all a passing fancy? Just because she had started to get to know him?

Slowly his other hand touched her hand and gave it a slight reassuring squeeze. Was she having a mental breakdown? She couldn't tell. She only could tell how she could read his eyes like she read her books. How she could feel his warmth radiating off his body as he moved closer to her. How she desperately wanted to know that 'what if?'.

Allowing herself to just relax she let her soul win the battle against her brain. For the soul knew how to heal itself. The only challenge was silencing the mind. She closed her eyes once Malfoy rested his forehead on hers their noses side by side.

She needed to know.

She wanted to feel.

She craved it.

She loved his smell. That pine smell mixed with mint and a musky masculine scent. She loved how nice her body fitted his when they hugged. She loved the small vulnerable moments both had and each one could heal the other. A elderly man had once asked her if she believed in soul mates. She couldn't say back there but now she wanted to know. Each soul was unique. An entity on its own but there were some pieces of each soul, some characteristics only one other soul could bring out. Those souls meet, for they have the same hiding place. Be it a library, a forest, a cafe. They always meet.

What if they were soul mates? What if that read thred she had seen for a moment on her hand lead to him? Would he want to be with her?

She parted her lips as she felt him move closer to her. Cheek on cheek. His warm breath meeting hers. It was only a small tilt of their heads. She could feel his lips above hers before a shrieking sound erupted at the trees close to them.

Both immediately pulled away and pointed their wands at the trees.

"I wrote a coded letter to my mother. Take it and go to the houses Owlry. I checked the wards and they can't trace us there. I'll check the source of the sound." Malfoy said and before she could protest he had gone in the forest.

Sighing Hermione lowered her wand and entered the tent. He had mentioned in the airplane that the villagers thought the forest to be cursed and noone dared to enter. Will all the enchantments and spells they wouldn't need to keep guard.

Taking the letter she went to the tree on the border of their camp and made a scratching mark. Half was hidden away by the charms. Though it was tiring she marked every tree on her way to the Owlry to ensure that they would be able to go back to their camp.

Sending the letter, she watched as the owl flew in the house before taking cover. She didn't want to think of what almost happened. Her mind had already been going down a dangerous trail and thinking about their almost kissing would drive her crazy.

The sound of steps on fallen leaves made her snap her head and point her wand at whoever was coming. She only lowered it after she met the eyes of the man that haunted her dreams.

"Won't it be dangerous? Sending a letter I mean." She asked as Malfoy sat at a rock.

"For anyone else the letter is gibberish. It's a code my mother and I came up with to talk during the war." He explained and she nodded understanding.

"You never told me about your parents Granger." He exclaimed turning to look at her, "You always are up to listening to me talking about my mother or about things I did when I was a kid but you don't talk about anything like that." He pointed out and Hermione bit her lip.

He had asked after all and nicely. Maybe he could help her. Malfoy had knowledge on some matters that she hadn't read about.

Turning to him she avoided his eyes. "Before the war I erased their memories." She explained waiting for a reaction or exclamation but nothing came. Looking up, she met his eyes and tried to gather her courage. "I wanted them to be safe so I send them off to Australia. They think they are Wendell and Monica Wilkins. Childless dentists that love hiking." She said fighting to keep her tears from running.

"You can't reverse the spell." Malfoy concluded and she nodded keeping a straight face.

"No. The risks of brain damage are too high. I have been searching for another way to make them remember but I haven't found anything." She sighed.

"I can help." Malfoy said making her look sharply at him.

"How?" She asked intrigued.

Malfoy seemed slightly uncomfortable but shook his head and answered.

"The flowers of Babylon." He answered and Hermione looked scandalized.

"Are you crazy? They are supposed to be extinct." She said remembering having read about them in Hogwarts.

The flowers of Babylon were two of the strongest magical plants in the hanging gardens of Babylon. The flower that bloomed the day was added in every potion making it almost undetectable and extremely strong. The flower that bloomed by night was added in the antidotes of the day blooming flower.

"They aren't obviously." He retorted, "The day blooming one is at London's botanical garden as an endangered plant. The night blooming is in Egypt. I did some research on the Babylonian potions and by Plato's and other philosophers descriptions I managed to find the flowers." He explained.

Hermione didn't know why he had mentioned the flowers but the project was intriguing. Studying the potions of an ancient civilization and managing to locate two of the most important plants on their culture is impressive.

"You can drool all over the project idea later Granger." He grunted and Hermione pouted but stayed silent waiting for him.

"Plato had described the method of making a potion that combined dreamshade with the day blooming. Have you got any idea what dreamshade is?" He asked and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Powerful killing plant that is used as a drug." She answered and he nodded.

"Combined with day bloom and mandrakes tears it can lose the ability to kill but it wipes clean your memory." He explained and then all clicked in place.

"If you make the antidote and add the night blooming you can restore memories." She completed his talk in a daze as he nodded.

"I was in the middle of making it. Once this is over we can go get some night bloom and restore your parents memories." He explained softly making Hermione blink.

"Would you do that to help me?" She asked and she looked in his eyes. There was only honesty there. He wasn't bluffing or making fun of her. He really meant it.

"I think I have proven to you that I will follow you to the end of Earth. Making a potion is the less thing I could do." He explained before his attention was pulled elsewhere.

Turning around Hermione noticed miss Narcissa exit the house and carefully make her way towards the Owlry.

She hadn't even reached their hiding place before Draco engulfed her in a hug.

He seemed relieved to see her be okay.

"Dear Merlin you are okay." Narcissa thanked as she pulled away from the hug and examined him.

"What happened Draco? Why do they think you killed a person?" She asked and Malfoy explained everything to her.

If looks could kill miss Narcissa would probably had killed both of them. She was furious but she wouldn't let it show.

"I can't believe that those buffoons managed to escape getting arrested. I will inform mister Potter about them. He had asked me in case I know anyone that might had it in for you darling but I didn't know." She exclaimed and Draco shook his head.

"Its okay mother. We didn't know either. We found out yesterday and came here immediately. How are things back in England?" He asked and Hermione stepped closer to hear better.

"Mister Potter has searched all the country and France for you two. He told me in private some days ago that he found some clues showing that the tests had been tampered with. He is sure someone is trying to frame you and he secretly conducts researches to find more evidence that can clean your name. They have set Aurors in the house and don't allow me and Andromeda to go back in Britain." She sighed, "The Greengrasses cancelled the betrothal. They didn't want to get their reputation destroyed. Astoria visited me and apologized for her parents actions. I returned to them her dowry. It didn't seem right to keep her things." She said and Malfoy nodded in agreement seeming relieved about it.

"She also talked to Potter. She said that you two had spend the afternoon together so she gave you an alibi for the time of murder." She explained before turning to Hermione.

Hermione was relieved that Malfoy had an alibi but she wished she could get one too. After their lunch she had gone home for a shower and to change her shirt and then went straight to work. The murder took place while she was at work so she could get one to testify for her.

"Miss Granger?" Miss Narcissa asked and Hermione brought her attention to her.

"Thank you for taking care of Draco. " she aid solemnly and Hermione softened her look.

"It was nothing." She asked with a small smile before all three noticed someone exit the house.

"You must go." Malfoy said and miss Narcissa seemed in a dilemma.

Hermione could see desperation in her eyes. That woman may keep her cool but her eyes are as expressing as Malfoys. She didn't want to leave her son. She didn't want to be forced to be away from him.

In the end, she pulled him a quick fast before picking up the water bowl from the Owlry and walking back towards the house.

Malfoy stayed there looking until his mother was safe in the house. Slowly Hermione took his hand and led his back to their camp.

A soft drizzle had started while they were walking. The storm was only beginning.

Once in the tent she softly pushed him to sit on the edge of the bed and started softly stroking his hair.

She wasn't sure if he allowed her to do so but she needed him to relax.

Softly, she leaned in a kissed his forehead, resting her head on top of his. Her cheeks burned a but as his arms wrapped around of her and he buried his face in her chest.

She didn't need books or logic to understand that man. He was raw emotion. He needed love but wouldn't tell you.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer** : The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the one I created belong to J. K. Rowling. The places I mention in the story with details are not advertised, they are mentioned in order to make the settings and the story more real. I don't make any profit.

 **Beta** : **Teriyaki Princes**

 **A** / **N** : An extremely big hug to **Jade Presley** for their reviews! It literally pushed me out of my writers block! Also, I changed my beta and that was part of the reason why it took me so long to update! Personally I think this chapter isn't so good. I'll leave it to your judgment. Enjoy!

 **Warning: Attempt** of suicide.

* * *

 **Tales In The Mist**

 **Chapter 9**

If he were to say that he had had a decent night's sleep that night, Draco would be lying. Granger had taken it upon herself to make sure that he wouldn't go back and 'kidnap' his mother, as she had put it.

He had been a right mess the previous night. Torn between what was right and what he wanted and the desire to go set a trap, anything, to catch those bastards. But, despite his protests, he wouldn't leave Granger. She had been so understanding and the way she traced patterns on his back and how delightfully full her breasts were when he buried his face in them.

Salazar, he had it bad!

They had stayed in that position, half hugging and half cuddling, until he moved and pulled her on the bed.

She comforted him. She was messing with his head. There were days that she wished she had gone alone on that half-assed trip and he would hiss at her that the door was still wide open for her to go. And there were days like yesterday.

Were they almost kissed.

He really didn't like being played and Granger acted as if she was bipolar or something. You either like or act civil to someone or you dislike, even hate them. Granger was like a riddle. No, no, like a jigsaw with a hell of lot of pieces in the same colour. He didn't know what to do. His pride was at stake. Well, he could easily say, in case he ever kissed her, that it was only because of impulse.

Nothing more, nothing less.

That thought, though, made dread pool in his gut. He wanted her to like him the way he liked her.

No.

No.

He didn't like her! She was a fleeting dream from his days back at Hogwarts. He could never have her. Yes, that was it! She was an erotic dream that he wanted to taste. Like a dream that you get so close to climaxing and in the end you wake up before your dream self manages to. And he hated when that happened to him.

He wanted Granger just because she was his infatuation, back then.

A forbidden fruit he knew not to taste.

But still, that didn't seem like what he was looking for to explain his thoughts, his actions.

Feeling movement, he opened his eyes and watched as Granger slowly woke up. It was something he thought of as normal, yet it made his chest swell with an unknown feeling. Her cheeks tinted pink, her lips slightly parted, closing as her mind started working and the way her eyelids fluttered. The sounds she made as she woke were the purest thing he had ever heard. Soft purring combine with a small moan.

The moment may have lasted no more than a minute, but to him it was more. It was like time had stopped and he could see every little detail of her and about her. Everything. It was the first time he noticed someone like that. With utter adoration.

He had it bad, yes, but he was willing to have his heart broken.

Broken. Because that's what she would do. Granger would never look at him the way he looked at her and that pained him. He felt so much for this woman and she didn't. Maybe she considered him to be her friend. But she, she was his light.

She changed his views on everything he had been taught, believed and saw. She was the manifestation of everything he wasn't. She was kind, soft, beautiful. Whole.

He was broken. She could easily have everything her heart desired but she never asked. If she asked him for the world he would give it to her. Ridiculous but true. If only he could get a look or smile holding anything; adoration, surprise, pride, happiness, helplessness, anything that he felt for her then it would be worth even giving his life for.

Had this trip changed something in him? Definitely. But at least he knew what he wanted and what he (maybe) felt about that witch.

"Draco?" Echoed her soft voice, pulling him out of his reverie. She was on her side staring at him with those big amber pools that looked like honey. Fucking hell he was getting soft and cheesy and all that bloody shit he wasn't. He wasn't!

"Yeah?" He asked trying to calm down and stop those fucking voices screaming to take advantage of her vulnerability.

That was ludicrous. Granger was anything _but_ vulnerable.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked softly smiling at him. Was she really comfortable looking at him like that? Like he was her world. Like he was the only one who could see her this calm.

Like they weren't Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger.

'You', he imagined telling her. 'You. How you turned my world around and how I can't get you out of my mind. How you have fucked with my soul and it needs to be near yours. To become one with yours. How that red string of fate that connects us is so bright to me, and as ridiculous as it sounds, I know we are soulmates. Ridiculous, isn't it? I don't believe in this crap but that old man proved me wrong and now I have to deal with falling deeper in love with you every day.'

He hadn't realised it until now. And it was scaring him. Weren't his feelings progressing too fast? How had that happened? Why was he feeling like this?

She must had noticed the conflict taking place in his mind and cupped his cheek in her soft,warm hand. Draco's eyes immediately fell to hers. He was scared. Scared that she would see him come undone. That she would realise everything that he feared to say and how he felt for her.

She opened her mouth to say something but closed it.

Before he even realised it, her lips were on his.

His eyes immediately closed and after a moment of hesitation he kissed her back.

The rain hadn't stopped since last night but as if the Gods agreed with their joining, thunder sliced the dark sky in two. The kiss was soft and slow, getting more and more passionate with every stroke of their lips, with every small bite and suck.

Draco licked her lower lip and softly nibbled on it. If she was hell then he wanted to burn in her fires.

Pulling away, he stared in her eyes trying to see what had gotten into her. He couldn't kiss her more or he wouldn't be able to control himself. That kiss was a teaser. It fucked with his brain in every possible way leaving only small openings for thoughts. Did she want more? Should he kiss her again? Should he take things to the next step?

"Why did you kiss me?" He choked out breaking the silence.

"Why did you kiss me back?" She replied furrowing her brow.

"Granger." He growled impatiently.

"It felt like the right thing to do." She said catching him off guard.

"Do you know what else would feel right but you would misunderstand?" He hissed, but he was hard. He couldn't stop himself and even when he thought of things that would definitely get him down, he couldn't.

"How would I misunderstand?" She asked pushing him on his back and straddling him.

That was it. Once she was on top, he held her waist and rolled her on her back getting on top. The kiss was hungry now. It was like he was underwater and her lips were oxygen. It felt so damn perfect and he wanted all of it. His hands were all around her testing the waters. She was warm to the touch. Her breasts fit perfectly in his palms, both their hips grinding into each others in a synchronized pattern.

Breaking their kiss, he pulled her shirt off her and started kissing her jaw. Normally, he wouldn't soothe his girl with kisses. He never took his time. Not even when he fucked Astoria before it got all awkward.

Her neck was next. He nibbled softly on the soft flesh in the crook of her neck where one could feel the pulse and then on her chest. Then he froze.

He couldn't do it. Despite how painfully hard he was, he couldn't. He couldn't just fuck her. To her it was a shag. The need to get closer with the other party after being on the run with them for a month. Was it already a month? Yes. A month and a couple of days.

Without looking at her, he rolled off her and shot up from the bed. Grabbing his cloak he made for the tent's opening.

"Wait Malfoy!" Granger called after him, but he couldn't stop now.

Going out in the rain, he made a run for it. He needed to be away from her, despite the weather. It was freezing and raining but he couldn't look her in her beautiful eyes. She wanted the convenient and he wasn't it. He wasn't a guy that she could shag without attachment. He could be, if he thought about it. He would just fuck her and never, ever, express how he felt.

But he couldn't do it.

He may lie to himself about many things but he couldn't order himself to lie about his feelings and he hated himself for it.

He couldn't see where he was heading. Everything was blurred. Was it the rain or his tears he couldn't tell. Stopping near some rocks, he sat on one and buried his face in his hands. Why was he crying? Why did his heart hurt? Why was she affecting him so much?

Wiping his tears away furiously he tried to steel himself. He couldn't do that. He couldn't cry now. For her. Because of what he would always he in her eyes. Throwing his head towards the sky he relished in the feel of each raindrop soaking into him.

If he weren't who he is, would she give him a chance?

Would she like him?

Would she want to be something more to him?

Throwing his shirt off he stared at his scars. He didn't have many, but each one held a meaning. One from Potter, one from falling off his broom when he was young, and then the faded Dark Mark on his forearm. He felt disgusted as he stared at the ugly thing he had had branded into him, and the tears came back. He was pathetic. He had ruined his life. It was either _that_ or death. He could have died. Now he was stigmatized for life.

Taking out his wand, he closed his eyes shut fighting the urge to scream as he cut across the Mark. Better to have more scars on it to blur the red scar. His eyes opened to look at his blood.

It was like hers. It was the same deep red. Just like _hers,_ back in the Manor. Fighting his sobs he cut his hand again. Deep gashes oozing blood. He deserved it. He deserved the pain, the scars, his blood to run.

Maybe it would be good if he ended everything right there, too. This torture.

Everyday he watched people make their lives. Others still mourned. Others got married. He was all alone. He had lost everything from one wrong choice. He wanted to be accepted by other people. He wasn't his father. He had strived to build a decent reputation. Strived to make a famous company. He had strived to be equal but failed. And now, all it took was the rejection of the woman that was more important than his blood. To have all the feelings he had bottled up consume him.

One more slash and then another. He was getting light headed. How he wished he had some firewhiskey. He could drown away his sorrows and with the way his blood ran in thick rivulets from his arm he would be dead in minutes.

"Dear Merlin", he heard someone say and his eyes, heavy lidded and sleepy, found her eyes. Those amber pools that haunted him. Why was she with him? Why did she even associate with little shits like him?

She was touching him. Trying to see the damage he inflicted on his arm. The other hand touching him for signs of fever. He wanted to cry.

" Please keep your eyes open. Don't fall asleep on me, please." She begged him.

Why ever was she worrying? The world would be better without him. Everyone would be better without him.

Who was he anyway? A Death eater. A murderer. The one who was the catalyst of the death of bloody Albus Dumbledore.

Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine another life. Somewhere, where Granger could look at him without seeing the part of the world that hated her most. Somewhere, where she loved him back.

He choked on a sob and let it all out. Crying for the way his life turned out. Like back in sixth year. Both times bleeding and crying. Only now he was wrapped in an embrace. The smell of cinnamon and gardenias. He knew that he must have looked like a right fool. Crying and bleeding and needing to be confronted.

He hated how often he broke down. He knew that it had to do with her being with him. Every regret and emotion he suppressed was coming back tenfold. He needed control but he wouldn't have it if he kept having regrets. He needed his sorrows washed away. He needed retribution. Forgiveness and acceptance. Someone to trust him. He hated having to keep the calm façade all the time. Even at home. He needed to let himself relax. He wanted to open up but was scared of rejection. Wanted love but was afraid to fall into it.

And now? That he had fallen? He was falling down an abyss of emotions with no one to catch him.

He couldn't make her love him. He had nothing to offer her. He didn't deserve her. Neither did Weasley, but that was another matter entirely.

Her warmth and the blood he had lost made him sleepy and soon enough he found himself getting pulled into Morpheus' warm embrace.

If Hermione screamed for him to open his eyes or took him back to the tent, he didn't know. He just knew he was somewhere warm. Somewhere where she was happy and in love with him.

Somewhere he felt free.

Soon, though, the nightmares caught up. Voldemort trying to grab him and Bellatrix laughing in the distance while Granger's screams echoed. Then behind him hooded people pointed at him.

'A mistake you are.' They screamed. 'A mistake!'. He was trying. Really trying. It wasn't fair. The scene changed and there was Granger, looking at him with angry accusing eyes.

"You disgust me." She hissed, "You are vile and cruel and you are good for nothing. You're better off dead!" She continued and Draco could feel his heart breaking and a sudden coldness washing over him.

Before he could open his mouth he was woken up. Shooting up, he looked around. He was in the tent. He was dressed warmly, meaning he was dry. Touching his hand , he almost yelled from the pain. It was bandaged and wrapped carefully.

Regret hit him immediately. He regretted giving Granger such a fright and making her witness it, and the same time he regretted not dying.

"You're awake." He heard her say and turned to face her.

"Granger I-" he started but she cut him off.

"You could have talked to me. I'm angry with you, but only because you didn't talk to me about your fears and because you almost died on me! Never do that again." She said in an angry voice but the relief in her eyes softened the blow.

'Don't ever die on me. ' Her eyes begged. 'Don't ever scare me like that. '

"What would I do without you?" He asked partly sarcastically and partly because he meant it.

The smile she gave him satisfied him and he didn't need her answer. She didn't need reply.

He would make her love him.

And if he didn't?

At least he could say that he tried.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer** : The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the one I created belong to J. K. Rowling. The places I mention in the story with details are not advertised, they are mentioned in order to make the settings and the story more real. I don't make any profit.

 **Beta: Teriyaki Princes**

 **A/N** : I'm back from the dead! I'm so sorry I haven't updated for so long. 2017 has started really bad for me and it continually slaps me all the time. Anyway, here it is and I'd like to wish Happy New Year and happy Clean Monday for those that live in countries that, like mine, celebrate it. I know I'm late for wishes but well I'm a nice person. Enjoy!

 **Warning** : Sex...

* * *

 **Tales In The Mist**

 **Chapter 10**

* * *

Hermione sighed as the rain finally stopped. After she found Draco bleeding to death, she couldn't make herself return to sleep again. How hard was it? To talk about his problems. If he had then she wouldn't have gotten so scared.

But why was she scared? Why fear for his life?

Truth be told, he was her friend. She saw him as a close friend. They were being chased by old Death Eaters that were holding it out for them for years. What had they done to them? They couldn't bring Voldemort back if they killed them and if it was a personal thing then they would have tried to kill them immediately.

No. They were after something. Something only she and Draco could find.

She rubbed her eyes and tried to think of something else. Well, she could recite all her work on werewolf rights or try to find any new information about a small legend that had become her new interest.

"For Merlin's sake, woman. Can't you just relax?" Malfoy asked popping an eye open.

"How long have you been awake?" She replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Enough to hear the gears in your head spin and you mumble about energy balls." He winced as he tried to sit upright. Hermione was immediately by his side, pushing him down.

"Take it easy. You lost a lot of blood yesterday." She stopped him.

Malfoy turned his face away and just stood still. What was it with men and their inability to accept that they could show weakness?

"What were you thinking about?" He asked, breaking the silence.

Hermione stood up from the chair and went to sit on the bed, making sure to not bother him.

"I was trying to find something to entertain myself with. My work on werewolf rights couldn't keep my focus for long so I tried to see if I knew anything more about 'The source'.", she explained and noticed the way he tensed.

"Why are you researching it? You should have found out by now that it won't lead you anywhere and that you're wasting your time." He argued rubbing his forehead.

"I came across a book in Grimmauld place about it." She said. She had been trying to keep him from knowing about the book but the truth had slipped from her lips like it was a simple phrase such as 'Hello' or 'Goodbye'.

"That book wasn't there when I searched the library and the basement. No one had ever seen the tome before, and it's silly." She stopped with a sad laugh but was soon cut off as a gentle hand touched her shoulder and she felt his weight move on the mattress.

"We live in a world of magic where everything is possible." He started, steel grey eyes boring in her amber ones.

"Tell me, Granger.", he ordered softly and she could feel her walls breaking.

Everything she had hidden from Harry and Ron about the book, her research, The Source, everything spilled out from between her lips.

" I found the book on the floor. I had turned the basement of Grimmauld place into my own little sanctuary in the house. After my break up with Ron, I used to spend all of my day in there, next to the small fireplace, organizing books, furniture, old heirlooms and cleaning. It was my room. I felt so at home being surrounded by all kind of magic, old magic. One day after work, I returned to the house and everyone was missing so I climbed down and once I had closed the door behind me, the fireplace lit up on its own and there was a book on the carpet. A huge old book with weird vine designs on the cover and black metal on the corners. I thought one of the guys had found it in the rooms and had thrown it in here but they didn't mention anything. ", she stopped to breath watching him. "I read the book. Not all of it but most. It wrote about 'The Source'. A huge ball of energy were all magic begin. Few people seem to have found it and they all gave it a different name. For wizarding people it was called 'The Source' because this is were magic was born. Muggles have different names for it."

"The ancient Greek considered the Source to be the five rivers of the Underworld. Acheron, Cocytus, Phlegethon, Lethe and Styx. The Romans were influenced by the Greeks and then there are mentions in other muggle religions, more modern about it being salvation, power and the total fusion with the world." Malfoy continued finishing for her.

"I found the book too." He answered to the question she didn't dare voice.

"You were researching the Source, too. Before all of this happened." She concluded and he nodded.

"Yes, I made the grave mistake of trying to find out about an ancient form of power that was probably the reason why Atlantis was destroyed, why the library of Alexandria was burned to the ground, why so many men died during the crusades and during the search of the Holy Grail." Malfoy continued, running a hand through his hair.

Hermione was staring at him in surprise. Her mouth partly open, watching him closely.

"You know Byzantine history." She commented in awe.

"What does that have to do with our topic?" He asked baffled.

"You brought it up. Are you baptised?" She continued and Malfoy shook his head.

"Other than that ceremony wizards do for a baby's name then no."

"So you are not a Christian. Do you believe in paganism?" She continued and Malfoy let an exaggerated sigh.

"For fuck's sake, Granger!" He called out putting a hand around her mouth to stop any further religion oriented questions.

"What the fuck is up with the questions?" He asked pulling his hand away.

Hermione folded her hands staring at him. "Its important because depending on which way you believe things exist or the deity you believe in, you seek the Source accordingly. Page 996, on the last paragraph." She said, her eyes making a dangerous trip to his lips and then back to his eyes.

Silence reigned between them before he reached and moved a curl from her face.

"Why us?" He asked softly and Hermione shook her head.

"Fate has a cruel way of choosing her victims." She responded, trailing her fingers over the bandages covering his scarred forearm.

Later the same day, they worked in silence, as they read through the documents they had found in Katharine's house. None of them contained information about why they were after them, or what they would gain if they died.

"This is ridiculous. They even followed me on my business trips. Wouldn't be surprised if they followed me into the Loo." Malfoy said scathingly, throwing his folders away.

Hermione raised her eyes for thoughtnt to look at him from where she was seated before looking back at her papers, letting a small hum escape her to show that she had heard him.

"Are you ignoring me, Granger?" He asked, staring at her.

"Yep." She simply replied offering him a smile, before taking another folder to look over.

The sound of a chair falling was heard, before the folder was snatched from her hands and he was towering above her. What she would have found intimidating some years ago, now was oddly compelling.

"How important are those papers Granger?" He whispered, his voice heavy and husky and Hermione found herself shivering at the sound.

"Important enough." She replied, her own voice deepening and dropping to match his.

Stormy grey eyes met hers and the only thing she could do was just get lost in them and take what he was offering. How long had it been since she had loosened up completely and gotten in a relationship without ties?

"Too bad." He whispered, his hand leaving the arm of her armchair to trail up her thigh. "Because Malfoys are always the center of attention and it doesn't end well when we are ignored." He continued, his head dropping close to hers, their lips barely a breath away.

This was a dance. A test. And she wanted to dance with him.

"I heard Malfoys always get the best." She started, closing her eyes as she brought her cheek to his, her breath on his ear.

"I'm the brightest witch of our age." She said, enjoying the title now. It wasn't bragging or boasting. It was a statement. She was the best.

By the time the words had left her mouth, his lips were on her neck. Kissing, sucking, teeth scrapping and biting, leaving marks on her. His mark.

Tilting her head to give him further access, she brought her hands up his chest, her fingers working on his buttons. One by one, they were undone, showing his body to her.

She hated the distance they had and her clothes but she knew their time would come. Racking her nails down his chest to his belly button was all it took for him to get impatient.

His hands reached under her thighs and cupping her ass, he picked her up.

Her legs wrapped around his waist, and before she knew it, her shirt was off, leaving her only in her bra.

Amber eyes locked with grey and a moment passed before their lips collided, teeth biting, tongues prodding and licking in a battle of dominance. Her back hit the bed and the gasp from the reaction to the cold sheets was his chance.

There wasn't a place left undiscovered in her mouth. He had explored, teased and played with her, all the while working to pull down her trousers.

After that, things got slow, sensual. With a tenderness not even Ron had shown her when they first slept together.

He was taking his time.

Kissing her lips passionately, her cheeks, her jaw, her neck all along to her breasts. He massaged her breasts, kissed, sucked, rolled her nipples just to hear her moan.

As much torture this was for Hermione, to be taking things slowly, it was a dream for Draco. He wanted to remember it. To learn her, to mark her. This had once been a wet dream, something created from his horny teenage mind. Now that this was real he didn't even care if the death eaters were outside of their tent.

Hermione reached and pulled down his pants. She was getting impatient and hotter with each moment. With each kiss, with each bite. Taking off his pants, she smirked once he kicked them off and pulled down his boxers too. The sight of him, hard and ready for her, made her even more impatient.

Pulling him up for a kiss, she reached and stroked his rigid member, earning a groan and an involuntary thrust on her arm.

"Impatient, aren't we?" He teased, biting her lip while pulling down her underwear.

Once she was free of the restrictive clothing, she wrapped her legs around him and used his lowered guard to roll him on his back. Reaching again, she took his member in her hand and pumped him while going down on him. Giving him one last look, she reached down and licked his tip, smirking at his sharp breath.

Giving him some more teasing licks, she bent and took his tip in her mouth sucking softly.

"Fuck." He hissed, fighting for every ounce of self control he possessed.

"Who's impatient now?" She sang to him before giving him a few more licks before sitting up.

Malfoy grabbed her waist and rolled her off him and climbed over, lining up yo her entrance. One hand was holding hers pinned above her and the other was travelling up her inner thigh and parting her wet folds. His thumb was rubbing slow circles on her clit, until he slipped a finger in her, moving it slowly.

Hermione moaned breathlessly, never breaking their eye contact.

"Ask, Hermione." He whispered, his lips barely caressing hers.

"Please." She pleaded softly, another moan escaping her as he slipped in another finger.

"Please?" He demanded.

"Please Draco." She moaned his name and that was all that was needed to break his resolve.

Pulling out his fingers, he slowly slipped in, hissing at her tightness.

For Hermione this flared things. This was like remembering a childhood dream, finding her mothers earrings after she lost them...

Finding him.

They slowly built a pace together. From the soft caresses and thrusts of delicate hands, to a frantic pace, she murmuring his name, he whispering hers.

This wasn't like anything she had ever felt. It was like the way her heart beat. Like the ocean with the moon, pushing and pulling, opposites crashing, the endless battle of good and bad. She was supposed to be good. He was supposed to be bad. Both of them had a piece of each other in them.

She could be ruthless and cunning. She always won. He could be brave and chivalrous. Slytherins always stuck together.

She could see lights. Blues, green. She could see red. Blood red. A forest, cloaked figures. A ball of light greater than ever. She touched it. Power. Raw power coursed through her veins as she scratched at his back, drawing blood.

Her name was repeatedly called. It was whispered, screamed, it took a pleading tone. He was looking at her. The grey of his eyes clashed brilliantly with the blue from the ball.

'Hermione... Please'. He was pleading but without words. He was laying on the ground. Her insides burned. She glowed. Panic. Anxiety.

She reached out to him, lacing her fingers with his.

'No... No please... Don't leave me..', Her voice. A plead, she didn't realise until she saw him bathed in blood. Bathed in his blood. He was holding a locket. A shell shaped locket which was open.

"No, no, please." She whispered squeezing his hand. A tear rolled off her eyes and everything exploded. Everything went white as a scream tore out her throat and her orgasm washed over her.

The sheer intensity of it made her mind hazy and was only brought back when he collapsed on top of her, panting. Panic coursed through her as she looked at him but she couldn't see the blood, nor the locket. His hand was bloody because of his wounds opening but there wasn't blood.

Looking down at him, she felt sweet lethargy washing over her as she played with his hair.

His eyes stared deep in hers and with whatever energy was left in her, she reached down and kissed him.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the one I created belong to J. K. Rowling. The places I mention in the story with details are not advertised, they are mentioned in order to make the settings and the story more real. I don't make any profit.

Beta: Teriyaki Princes

A/N: Enjoy!

Warning: You'll see...

* * *

 **Tales In The Mist**

 **Chapter 11**

* * *

Draco was the first one to wake up. His arm was killing him and he hated the wet feeling of blood but he feared to move in case the beauty pressed against him disappeared.

She was laying there on his chest, unruly curls spread all over her back, the faint sunlight hitting her hips and legs in ways that gave them a golden hue. She looked so peaceful, for once. Pink lips slightly parted, her eyes not fluttering because of dreams, her scarred hand not twitching from nightmares.

He let his head fall back on the pillow as he stared at the roof of their tent. For one thing, he was so damn satisfied. Sex with her wasn't simply sex. It tore him apart and put him back together. It was refreshing, new, unpredictable. It was like he was learning what a woman was all over again.

But it was all an illusion.

Dreams like that never ended well. He had just taken a leap towards his damnation. She would destroy him.

Closing his eyes, he frowned thinking of it. He would be damned if he said he didn't like it, didn't hunger for it, but it would be his undoing.

"Regrets already?" A soft voice wondered and he looked down, only to be met with liquid amber pools staring directly into his soul.

How could he hate himself if she looked at him like that?

"No." He replied running his fingers down her spine, "Just thinking."

"What were you thinking?" She asked and he smiled.

"Well what fun would it be if I told you?" He teased and she laughed.

"Oh, come on, Malfoy." She huffed smiling, and he gasped dramatically.

"I made you scream my name last night and I'm still Malfoy to you?" He asked faking offense before poking her sides, which earned him a sharp squeal.

"Don't do that." She whined, and he raised an eyebrow.

"What? That?" He asked poking her again and she jumped with another squeal.

"Don't!" She squealed and he laughed pinning her down and tickling her sides.

"Say my name." He said with a smirk as he continued tickling her.

Hermione between her laughs and whimpers shook her head, trying to escape his grip.

"No.." She gasped out almost out of breath.

Draco smirked and continued enjoying her squirming.

"No?"

"Please, stop. Draco, please!" She laughed out and he left her, staring at her as she wiped tears of laughter from her eyes and panting.

Leaning down, he captured her lips in a soft kiss, his heart skipping a beat as she kissed him back. Her hands snaked around his neck, one burying in his hair and the other tracing the muscles on his back.

The kiss soon got heated. Lips locked, tongues fought and hands roamed places they hadn't discovered yesterday. A moan escaped her lips as he ran his fingers over her folds and a growl left his throat as she pumped his member.

The second time was just as intense as the first, but there was something different in it. They moved in sync, he could feel her emotions, and she his. They weren't two different bodies. In her eyes he saw her but in a different time. A different setting.

One moment she was as she was, staring at him, panting his name as if she'd lose him if she didn't, as if he was a god, and then she was there teasing him. Making him chase her around a temple.

A Greek temple. Her robes were fluttering around her ankles and he could hear her giggles. He twisted around marble columns only for her to escape him.

'You know we shouldn't be here.' She hummed and the smell of lavender and oranges was strong as they walked deeper in the temple.

"Hermione." He whispered and he was back with her under him.

She almost looked in pain. He would have stopped hadn't her legs had wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer to her. Reaching down, he kissed her neck, his name rolling off her tongue like a prayer.

"Draco..."

'Draco come on. You should see it.' She urged him, suddenly appearing next to him. Her robes were a purple-blue and she wore delicate golden arm bands.

'What is it?' He asked as in front of him appeared a pool of shining blue water.

'The Source.' She whispered in his ear and his nerves erupted.

He gasped as his orgasm hit him without him understanding it and he rode it out watching as Granger still convulsed from hers under him.

Bracing himself on his forearms despite the pain, he stared at her, trying to see how he could imagine her in ancient robes.

"Granger?" He choked out, still out of breath, and she opened her eyes to stare at him. But the Granger of his imagination wasn't there.

"Yeah?" She panted and he shook his head, leaning to rest his forehead on hers.

"Nothing. Its nothing." He said as he closed his eyes, breathing in her smell.

* * *

All of that morning was spent in bed. Just sharing stories of their past and information they found interesting, only to have an argument break out. Nothing much, just they would stop talking for a couple of minutes before one of them admitted that the others' opinion wasn't entirely wrong.

Draco groaned as Hermione rolled off him and went to find her clothes to get changed.

"Come back here. " he groaned reaching out to her and she smiled but shook her head.

"We've got work to do. We are meeting with your mother today to see if she managed to talked to Harry and we've got to make a plan to catch those men." She explained as she got a fresh pair of clothes from her bag.

He sighed sitting up and reaching to pull his boxers on. "How do you plan to survive the cold water, Granger? I can't revive people from heart attacks." He called out watching her go in the bathroom.

Hermione rolled her eyes turning to face him. "I think I'll manage." She said, walking in and closing the door.

The Malfoy heir sighed and dressed in the clothes he was wearing prior to his new activities with the only woman on earth daring to take a cold bath while on a mountain in Norway.

Walking back to the files they had been working on yesterday, he took the photographs and looked through them. There wasn't anything in the actual photos but he needed to consider some things. The Death Eaters had nothing to do with them suddenly researching the Source. There were photographs before the day they found the book.

Letting his photographs down, his mind took him to the Hermione he had imagined. It completely threw him off balance, to have the woman he was fantasizing about squirming beneath him yet still fantasizing about her.

No. Something was off. He had seen her like that somewhere before, as he recognized the temple.

Shaking his head, he moved to boil some water for their tea and looked for the cookies they had for breakfast.

* * *

He could admit, she's bloody smart. Walking up the path to his mother's house, he now noticed the runes she had left on the trees.

"You wrote Narcissus." He mused as Granger turned to look at him.

"I didn't know you knew how to read runes." She said, surprise showing in her face.

"Well, I would, wouldn't I, seeing as we were in the same class." He answered nonchalantly as he looked up at the house in the distance. "Why Narcissus?" He asked, stopping at the Owlery.

"I just wrote the flower's name. Started with 'N' at our camp's borders and ended with the last 'S' here. Its for your mothers name." She explained as she watched him send off an owl.

"Five galleons says that's Potter with her." He smirked at the woman, watching as the door of the house opened and two people came out.

Hermione shook her head. "No. Harry doesn't walk like that. It's like he's strutting." She said and as the two people neared, Draco's smirk broadened.

"Who doesn't strut?" He teased before steeling his expression and offering a nod at Potter.

"Potter." He grunted and the Boy Who Lived grunted in response before his eyes fell on Hermione.

"Thank Merlin you're okay." Potter mumbled pulling her into a hug.

"I missed you, Harry." Hermione murmured to the scarred man who nodded, no one wanting to break the hug.

Potter reluctantly let her go and looked at them.

"Miss Narcissa here told me of the leads you found." He started after clearing his throat and Hermione nodded, giving him the bag with the folders and the photographs.

A tense silence fell upon them as Harry read the documents and checked the photographs.

"That's really weird." He said and Hermione nodded.

"They had been following us for at least a year and from what we gathered, Katharine died because she disagreed over something with the men we told you about. " she explained ,and the Auror nodded.

"I've got a plan." Harry said.

"I so don't like that." Draco replied, shrugging when the other three people turned to look at him.

"I'll take them back to the office with me and I'll organize a fake turn in with Kingsley. You two will come with me to England tomorrow, but we will let the news that I caught you travel back home today." he started and Malfoy shook his head.

"You're planning to have them get caught in the trap that was supposedly set for us." He exclaimed and Harry nodded, turning excitedly to Hermione.

"They will try to attack us when we get to the Ministry." She hummed thinking about it.

"They're not so stupid." She said, and Draco nodded.

"Yes, but two can play the same game. They made the Aurors hunt us and we will turn the tables setting the Aurors against them. Potter, your plan could work but they will see through it if we suddenly appear there and they're surrounded by Aurors. " he explained and Harry looked horrified by Draco's words.

Hermione waved him off.

"Cut it out, Harry. He can compliment people. You two could be friends." She proposed and both men shivered in disgust.

"Hell no."

"Don't make me puke, Granger."

"Draco, language." Narcissa scolded her son softly before looking at the trio.

"Why don't you simply get them back?" she asked and Harry blinked.

"How?" He asked and Narcissa smiled.

"Simple. Say you've found evidence that they are not the ones that did it and that someone confessed that they knew who did it and give one of the names. They will start arguing about who betrayed them. They'll mess up their next step and you will catch them more easily and with more evidence." She offered and all three looked at her in awe.

"Bloody hell." Harry muttered while Draco simply starred at his mother in awe.

"Harry, can you do that?" Hermione asked eagerly and Draco looked at her, feeling a bit hurt. Whatever was going on between them would end and as ridiculous as it sounds, from a man that spent enough years before settling down and getting engaged, having one night stands and fleeting friends with benefits relationships, that he didn't want it to end.

"I'll try. I will floo Kingsley tonight and tell him. How can I find you again?" He asked looking at his watch.

"We will come here at the same time tomorrow." Hermione told him and the man nodded.

Narcissa looked at her son and sighed pulling him into a soft hug. "I'm sorry you have to go through all of this." She apologized and Draco shook his head.

"You are the last person I blame for this, mother. We'll return home tomorrow, hopefully." He reassured her and watched as Potter took his mother back home.

"Come on Draco." Hermione smiled but it did nothing to warm him or cheer him up. For him, Potter was now the weight of the sand in the hourglass of time that pushed a big grain down to the lost sandhill. His time was out and as unexpectedly as he had found a place in her life, he was losing it.

Following her, he kicked pebbles and dried leaves, watching her ahead of him collecting dome mushrooms that he hoped were edible.

Now he had regrets. If he had kept it in his pants then maybe he wouldn't have to be this lost- until he moved on, if he ever moved on.

"Have you seen the Moulin Rouge?" He asked and he watched her turn to him in shock.

"You watch films?" She asked and he shrugged.

"Its a musical but I saw it only because I went to the real Moulin Rouge in France. If you could use one of the songs to describe how you feel now." He said, pausing, "Which would you use?" He finished, liquid silver meeting shining gold.

"Oh. Well probably something happy like the song they sang while trying to convince the Duke to invest in their show." She said, pausing in her steps.

"You?"

"The show must go on." He said holding her stare. An unspoken message passed between them and she gulped uncomfortably.

"You're lying." She choked out and he closed his eyes.

"Yes, you're right, I'm lying." He spat out, opening his eyes again.

"El tango de Roxanne probably suits me more. " he said, watching her reaction.

"What do you mean?" She asked putting down what she was holding on a chair.

"Why does my heart cry? Feelings I can't fight. You're free to leave me but just don't deceive me and please, believe me when I say I love you..." He sang softly, his heart breaking as he didn't dare to look at her eyes, in case she saw how much she broke him.

"I... I don't feel the same." She choked out averting her eyes to the floor.

"I didn't expect you to." He said harshly, and both looked up at the other.

"Why did you sleep with me?" She hissed, glaring.

"Why did you?" He snapped in return.

"I wanted to let loose. " she replied and he choked back his desperation, making his voice as even and cold as he could.

"I needed to get you out of my system." He said and it seemed like everything had gotten much colder than it was before.

Hermione took her cloak and went out, bumping shoulders with him as she passed. Draco folded his arms and just stared at the place she was standing moments before, before allowing the choked sob that was eating away his heart come out in a breathless gasp.

It was over.

He had fooled her and himself for now, that he didn't care, didn't need her, but he knew it would be worse without her. His words would hurt him more than they would her when alone in the empty manor.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer** : The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the one I created belong to J. K. Rowling. The places I mention in the story with details are not advertised, they are mentioned in order to make the settings and the story more real. I don't make any profit.

 **Beta: Teriyaki Princes**

 **A/N** : Enjoy!

* * *

 **Tales In The Mist**

 **Chapter 12**

* * *

The Ministry of Magic was full. Every wizard or witch that was able to leave work was there to hear the speech Harry Potter was to give about the case of their war heroine and the ex-Death Eater.

Hermione was standing next to Harry on the podium the Ministry had set for the speech, but her mind was elsewhere. She had been replaying her and Draco's argument in her head, ever since they had returned to England.

 _ **I**_ _ **needed to get you out of my system.**_

For some reason, it hurt.

It hurt a lot. She hated hurting people and she couldn't believe she hadn't understood he had become infatuated with her, because she didn't dare believe it was love. It was lust. He was a man and his needs had gotten the better of him. Simple. What did she have that other women didn't have to get him drawn to her, after all?

Harry touched her shoulder softly, and she snapped her head up to look at him.

"Hey, are you okay? You look pale." He asked her, and she shook her head, her eyes involuntarily searching the crowd for pale blond hair.

"No, I'm fine. I'm just tired and glad this is over. Won't Malfoy come?" she asked, and Harry shook his head.

"No. He said he wanted to go home and not get mixed up with the press again. He said he had had enough of both of us to last him a lifetime." He answered her while making a face.

"Not only do we save his ass and prove that he is not guilty, but he has the nerve to still be a right wanker to us. If it was in my hand, he would still be guilty." He continued, but stopped upon getting a glare from Hermione.

"He had enough to deal with and I'm sure he has more important things to do than attend a press conference." She told him off, and Harry raised his hands in defeat.

"Molly is expecting us for lunch after this mess is over. Everyone is so excited to see you again. It has been three months after all." He smiled at her, before Kingsley came out of his office and everyone stopped talking.

"Thank you all for coming today." He started, looking at everyone. "Three months ago, a ministry official from the Japanese Ministry of Magic was killed in her apartment, shortly after leaving a business appointment with Miss Granger and Mister Malfoy, who were chosen by the Ministry to negotiate with her about trading potion ingredients and some banning regulations. Little did we know that Mister Malfoy and Miss Granger were both being targeted by a group of Death Eaters that wanted them dead, or at the very least in Azkaban. Mister Potter will tell you more about the case." Kingsley finished and the people clapped.

After squeezing her hand reassuringly, Harry stood at the podium and looked at the crowd.

"Katharine Tanaka had been spying on Mister Malfoy and Miss Granger for over a year and was murdered by said Death Eaters because of unknown reasons. Our evidence show that they probably had a disagreement about their targets or that their goals were not the same anymore. She had been killed by the use of dark spells that cut wounds into the body and hair. DNA evidence was left on her body to incriminate Miss Granger and Mister Malfoy. After months of fruitless investigations, Miss Granger and Mister Malfoy contacted us through Narcissa Black Malfoy to tell us they had found evidence proving their innocence. We already had testimonies of people giving them an alibi but the Wizengamot didn't consider them to be enough. We now have files in our hands, containing information about Miss Tanaka and the Death Eaters." Harry said, pausing for effect and licking his lips.

"A valuable source of information told us the name of one of the Death eaters, claiming that they would get even." He continued, making that part up as it was the most possible reason.

"Edward Collins." He said, and there was a moment of silence before hell came loose.

"Mister Potter, who is your source?"

"Mister Potter, do you know the names of the other Death Eaters?"

"Isn't the fact that Miss Granger was targeted by Death Eaters the Auror's fault for not capturing them?"

Harry raised a hand and the questions stopped.

"I cant give the name of my source and no, we are not informed about the their names. And as for the last question, yes it is and as the head of the department, I am deeply ashamed that two innocent people were almost put in Azkaban and most of all, I am ashamed because I thought my best friend had committed the crime." He paused, and gave Hermione a sad look.

"We won't answer any more questions and both miss Ganger and mister Malfoy will be guarded by Aurors. They are under absolutely no obligation to answer any questions. Thank you." Harry finished he interview, and climbed down, making a b line for Hermione.

Hermione was touched by Harry's words. She really hadn't thought of how her friends had been affected by this whole ordeal.

"Let's go." Harry said, and she took his hand, stopping him.

"I 'm not mad at you, Harry." she told him, and was immediately pulled into his arms.

Both held each other, as if they would never see each other again.

Pulling away, Hermione wiped a few stray tears away and watched him do the same.

"Can I stay with you at Grimmauld place?" She asked, and Harry nodded.

"It 's your home too." He answered, before taking her hand and making his way to the

empty fireplace Kingsley had kept for them.

Harry flooed to the Burrow first and Hermione took a moment to collect herself. Everything was so awkward. The warm shower she had taken, prior to coming to the Ministry, the fact that she wasn't an outcast anymore, that there wouldn't be a blond, sarcastic, actually really sweet, idiot outside waiting for her, seated on the couch and nagging about how his ideas were better than hers.

Rubbing her temple, she sighed once more. She had been truthful. She had turned him down not quite gently but he had hurt her emotions too. Yes, that was it. After all, it was easier being angry with someone else, ignoring your part in the whole ordeal.

With a small smile and her best relieved attitude, she stepped into the fireplace and let the green flames engulf her, before appearing with a thud in the Burrow's busy living room.

"Hermione, dear!" Molly exclaimed, pulling her in a hug before she had even managed to dust the soot off her clothes.

"Nice to see you Molly." She smiled, returning the hug.

Pulling away, she was pulled in a hug by Ginny that almost suffocated her.

"Merlin knows how much I missed you. Did Malfoy hurt you while on your trip? I swear, if he ever did so little as hurt a hair on your head, he'll be sorry." She asked, and Hermione shook her head, her heart clenching at the mention of the blond man.

"He didn't hurt me." she reassured the girl, before standing in front of Ron.

"I, uh, I'm sorry." He cracked out, burying his hands in his pockets.

That was when Hermione noticed something had changed about him. He looked tidier, healthier, and he had a glow that wasn't there when they were still a couple.

"For what?" She asked with a smile, and watched as he rocked on the ball of his feet.

"Well I kind of thought you killed someone. You cursed Edgecombs face in fifth year, and closed Skeeter in a jar for months in fourth. It just seemed possible, and- and Malfoy is a bad guy." He said, but if he was trying to joke, all of the humor was lost on her.

"He is not a bad guy. The war's over and despite him being an ass to everyone and saying nasty things, he isn't a bad guy." She exclaimed, and Ron raised his hands as if in surrender.

"Geez, Hermione. Some things never change, do they? Giving people second chances and all." He smiled, and Hermione tried to smile too, succeeding by the look on his face. Her heart, though, was ready to break again. She really didn't need to be reminded of _**him**_ all the time.

It was guilt after all. Guilt that she had turned him down like that...

No! It wasn't her fault. He had started the argument!

"Something's different about you." She smiled, and Ron blushed, the air between them thickening.

"I'm dating someone." He started, and Hermione smiled to help him continue.

"Her name's Lauren. I met her in France when I went there supposedly looking for you. She's an Auror too, and transferred over to be in our department." He explained, and now Hermione was smiling brightly.

"That's amazing, Ron. I'm so happy for you." She exclaimed, making him grin back.

"I think you'll like her. She's smart and sweet and I'd like it if you could both be friendly. She is moving here, after all, for me and I want her to have a friend." He

admitted, and she nodded.

"Count on it. I'm actually quite eager to meet her." She admitted, and Ron pulled her in a hug.

"Thanks."

* * *

Lunch was as perfect as always and she felt relieved. Relieved that there wasn't any awkward moments and that her heart didn't ache. Relieved that her pulse didn't quicken and she never felt the magic in her veins reach out to someone.

At one point, she had seen a red thread. It was tied around her pinky finger and it looped and turned and twisted but the other end wasn't there. It was only there for a moments' breath.

Dinner had her almost exploding from the amount of food she had eaten. Molly wouldn't let her leave the table until she had eaten enough food for all the months she was away.

Standing up from the table, she excused herself to use the loo and sighed in relief when she locked the door behind her. After finishing her business and going to wash her hands, she paused, staring in the mirror. She had lost some pounds and looked paler but she was the same. The very same.

Suddenly, something was behind her. A shadow was standing behind her and when she turned away from the mirror, nothing was there. Her heart was pounding hard. Seeing and hearing things weren't good, even for the magical world. Cold sweat was running down her back and she closed her eyes hard to shake her fear away.

Opening her eyes, she stared directly into the mirror and Malfoy was standing behind her, where the shadow was before. But he was bloody and his eyes were lifeless. His hand was clinging to a locket and the other held a golden ball with circles on it.

A scream left her throat and the mirror broke, resulting in the shards falling and

cutting her hands, where she was holding the basin.

Immediately the door was unlocked and Harry ran in, taking in her shaking image. Looking around, he ensured nothing was in there with her before pulling her in his arms, despite the blood.

Hermione was shaking hard. She had never been so terrified in her life, not even when she was facing death with Bellatrix Lestrange looming over her. Her mind was playing tricks with her. There couldn't be another possible explanation. She was breaking.

"Shhhh its all okay. You're safe." Harry murmured, still holding her close. She was clinging onto him for dear life, afraid that if she looked up, she would come face to face with that mirage of Malfoy.

"I'm so sorry Harry." She whimpered, daring to open her eyes.

Ron was standing at the door with Ginny, and George was looking around the small room to see what could have possibly happened.

Molly came running and looked at the scene.

"What happened? Are you okay sweety?" She asked, worried sick, and Hermione, finally pulling herself together after her panic subsided nodded looking up at the woman that was like a second mother to her.

"Yes, I'm okay. I just had a really tiring day. Would you mind if I went home to rest?" She asked, and Molly shook her head as she healed her hands.

"Of course not, dear. Go get some rest. You look like you've seen a boggart." She said, and Hermione's head shot up.

"Could you please check the bathroom for one? I saw something terrible." She said, ignoring Harry's sharp look as he helped her stand.

"I'll take her to Grimmauld place. I'll be right back." He said, and led her to the fireplace after grabbing her bag.

They flooed together and walked out of the fireplace on the other side.

Tentatively, she sat on an armchair and closed her eyes as she felt her muscles relax.

Harry left her bag on the coffee table and sat on it in front of her.

"What did you see, Hermione?" He asked, frowning when the woman in front of him shook her head, avoiding meeting his eyes.

"It was nothing, Harry." She tried but failed to convince him.

"Remember once you were the one telling me that visions weren't real? I think that you are right but there are people who have real visions. Seers, for example." He tried, but she threw him a glare.

"I'm not a Seer." She said, shaking her head.

"I know you're not but you never know how the Great Day is affecting you." He informed her, and Hermione looked at him shocked.

"What's the Great Day?" She asked, and it was Harry's turn to look shocked.

"You don't know?" He mumbled, "Its a festival that happens every two millennium-it's about celebrating the element of magic itself. Its connected with the moon eclipse that will happen next month. The festival and all the weird activities start appearing a month prior to the eclipse."He explained.

Hermione looked at him, frozen. A lot of scenarios were running through her head

and she couldn't talk to him about them. They would be celebrating the Source and the peak of all magical activity would be during the moon's eclipse.

She needed to talk to Malfoy, but she doubted he would listen to her. He had to know, though, and she couldn't tell him through the floo or a letter because they could get intercepted.

"I didn't see anything, Harry. Thanks for informing me about the festival." Hermione said, and the Boy Who Lived nodded, disappointed she wouldn't tell him what was on her mind.

"If you need anything, don't hesitate to call me, okay?" He asked as he walked to the fireplace.

Hermione nodded, picking up her bag.

"I will." She reassured him, watching as he disappeared in a flash of green flames.

Throwing her bag onto a chair, she ran to get to the basement and find the book. She needed to learn more. Whatever was happening, it was affecting her.

And she didn't like it one bit.


End file.
